25th Anniversary

For our 25th Wedding Anniversary, we decided to celebrate with a Caribbean Cruise. We sailed with Norwegian Cruise Lines on the "Star" out of Tampa. We chose this line and ship because of the itinerary. Our research told us to not sail out of Galveston due to fog delays. Alonda also wanted to go to Florida to visit her grandfather's grave site in Tampa and to see a nephew in Lake Worth. We had no delays and were able to visit all ports of call (Honduras, Belize and Mexico). Fortunately, we also had no illness on the boat.

This is a photo of the skyline of Tampa as we were leaving the port. The weather in Florida was nice, but could have been a little warmer.

The ship went under the Sunshine Skyway Bridge as we left Tampa Bay and entered the Gulf of Mexico. This was going to be our first night on board and we spent the next full day at sea.

This was the Atrium. It is the main entrance to the ship and has elevators, a coffee/piano bar and the guest services. This was also one of several areas with live music several times a day throughout the cruise.

This the Spinnaker Lounge. It was used for games, evening music and dancing and large meetings. It was on deck 6 at the back of the ship. Sometimes when we were dancing, the ship would roll a bit and we would wind up dancing uphill or downhill.

Of course the ship has pools, water-slides and Jacuzzis. The water was all saltwater and Alonda said the pool was too cold. We didn't try the water-slides. There were sundecks all around the pool areas and on the top deck at the back of the ship. This was another area with live music several times a day. There were two bars and a buffet here, too.

This is the Deck 6 Promenade. You could walk along the ship's rail, sit on a lounger in the shade, play shuffleboard, play mini-golf or use the driving range, or shoot baskets on a small basketball court. This was a very windy area.

This was the Versailles Dining Room. It was our favorite restaurant. They recommended reservations, but we found out if you are only two people, you just show up and they always had room. Groups needed a reservation. We did have a reservation for our anniversary (15 Feb), they gave us a special cake and the servers came by to sing to us. 

  For breakfast, we went up on deck 12 for the buffet. It had 7 areas (not all different) and a good view from the side windows.

This our hallway. We lived on deck 10, a little forward of the middle of the ship. This hallway was well over 200 yards long. The ship had 3 banks of elevators for the guests and we saw several more sets of elevators for the crew. If you got lost, you could look at the carpet. It had fish on it and the fish always swam toward the front of the ship (except for a few red salmon).

We had our anniversary picture taken. There were professional photographers down by guest services for most of the cruise. No one dressed up for the first night on board (Valentine's Day), but everyone dressed up for the second evening. They may not have had their luggage for Valentine's Day.

Roatan, an island off Honduras, was our first port of call. The ship's "Shopping Advisors" said the ship would dock at 9 am. They were right!

This is the tourist shopping area at the dock. We didn't tour the island, but there doesn't seem to be much there. A bus took us from the dock to another dock to board our snorkeling catamaran.

Here we are, on the catamaran! The catamaran crew took at least a hundred pictures and put them on FaceBook and sent us the link.

Here we are, snorkeling!  The water was very clear and the temperature was very comfortable. The reef was very clean, but not as colorful as where we went in the Red Sea. We took some pictures with disposable underwater cameras, but they are not back from the developer, yet.

  We were both wearing T-shirts to help make sure we didn't get sunburned.The yellow things are inflatable vests they required everyone to wear so they could keep track of us. They weren't very comfortable. 

  They served a surprisingly good lunch on the boat on the way back to the dock. Chicken, beans and rice and a pasta salad. You could have all the alcohol you wanted, but they wouldn't serve any of it on the way out to go snorkeling.

  We had a really nice time on the snorkeling boat.

Our next port of call was Belize. This is NOT our ship. There is no wharf at Belize big enough for the cruise ships. They send out small boats (tenders) to pick up the tourists and take them to Belize City. We stayed on board until all the people who had signed up for tours had been taken ashore first.

This is the flag of the country of Belize.

This is the Belize City fishing fleet. We walked by it going into town and again on the way back to the tourist enclave.

  There were literally 2000 tourists on our ship and there were three ships there at one time. The other two ships probably had 4000 tourists per ship. When we got ashore, we just walked up to the gate of the tourist compound and they opened the door and we walked out. No passport; no ID check (we DID have our ship ID and driver's licenses); no visa; no immunizations. When we originally boarded the ship in Tampa, they did passport checks. Every time we left or boarded the boat, we had to punch in with our ship ID. They had a scanner for luggage and shopping bags every time we boarded the ship. They told us that if you missed the boat, they wouldn't wait, but they would tell the local authorities you were missing.

This is the throbbing heart of downtown Belize City. It actually reminds us of Bremerton. You can get off the boat and walk around the downtown in less than an hour. The store in the photo, Brodies, is a grocery store. We went in to buy chocolate and hot sauce.

This is the major government building in Belize City. It is on a nice square.

This is the local Presbyterian Church in Belize City, next to the Government building. Many of the buildings in tropical regions are painted in pastels, like this one.

Our next stop was Costa Maya, Mexico. Costa Maya is an island south of the Yucatan Peninsula.

This is the tourist area in Costa Maya. You can see the wharf leading in to it. The little red trolley is for the tourists to ride in from the ship, but it was an easy walk. This picture was taken from our balcony.

This is the beach area on Costa Maya. Costa Maya is actually an island which is built up for the tourists to visit.

Our last stop was Cozumel. Cozumel is different from Costa Maya because if there were no tourists, Cozumel would still exist. It has a port, ferry terminal, airport, commercial center, downtown and (of course) tourist shops.

This is our ship, docked at Cozumel. There were two other ships in port, but we had the best docking location. The water here was this beautiful aquamarine and blue throughout our trip. The weather cooperated the whole time, too.

This is the city square in the middle of Cozumel. It was a large, pedestrian only zone and very pleasant to walk through.

  We very much enjoyed Cozumel. The tourist shops were nice. The restaurant where we ate lunch was very good and had a mariachi band that serenaded us. We also stopped for coffee at a Starbucks. It had a second floor area that overlooked the harbor. It very much reminded us of the Starbucks in Jeddah. We would go there on Thursday (Saudi Arabian weekend) and sit and watch the waves. We stopped and bought water at a Mexican store that was pretty much like Costco.

Here is the bath towel art brigade. The maid would make a different one every evening and leave it on the bed. They were soooo cute!

This is the Norwegian "Star". Our cabin was on deck 10 of 13. The lowest we ever got was deck 3 for security and boarding.

This ship was parked next to ours one day. You can see the size of the people and get an idea of how tall these ships are.

We had a very nice time!

New Year's Day Volkswalk

Happy New Year! We started the year with a 5 Km Volkswalk at Ft Flagler State Park. The entire park is on the north slope facing Puget Sound and is quite cold in the winter. It was about a one-hour drive northwest from our condo.

  The Washington State Park system is well cared for and most parks have trails. In case you don't know, a "Volkswalk" is a non-competitive fitness walk that was developed in Europe. We were lucky and got a clear, but cold, day.

  The walk was quite "crunchy" because of the frost. The ground was mostly frozen except for the sunny parts.

Here are some frosty Sword Ferns. This is a common fern in the Pacific Northwest.

This is one of the many left-over Coast Artillery bunkers in this part of the world. The entire Puget Sound area was ringed with artillery bunkers over a hundred years ago. They were designed to keep unfriendly Navy ships from entering and attacking the Puget Sound Navy Yard and Seattle. The bunkers are almost all still here, but the guns were all removed during WWII (at the latest). 

Here is one of the interpretive signs along the trail.

All the state parks have camping and picnicking locations. The RV camping area was surprisingly full. This picnic area was frosty, but you can see the sun coming out.

By the time we got to the Ft Flagler parade ground, the sun was up and the geese were swooshing around. You can rent some of the buildings for family reunions and conferences here, too.

This is an official "Paragliding" site, too. The cliffs provide an area with a reliable updraft for the humans and the geese.

Looking east from Ft Flagler are the Cascade Mountains. The clear, cold weather gave a wonderful view. The snow is starting to look good.

Looking west from Ft Flagler are the Olympic Mountains. This part of the world is actually between two separate mountain ranges. 

This paper mill is near Port Townsend and is still running. Most of the heavy logging in the Pacific Northwest is gone, but some logging is still going on. Port Townsend is north across the water from Ft Flagler and has its own Ft Warden with Coast Artillery bunkers and 100-year old buildings you can stay in.

This shot of Mt Baker across the Sound has a lighthouse in the foreground. Lighthouses are as tall as they need to be so you can see their light from the horizon. Going across the Sound, the horizon is not very far away. People who visit Ft Flagler in the summer spend more time on the beach than on the trails.

We hope you had a happy holiday season and look forward to a wonderful 2016.

Christmas and 2015 Review

Merry Christmas from the Droege's!
We are staying in Bremerton for the Holidays and have invited the neighbors to come for Christmas dinner. We will be playing with the hand bell choir at church for Christmas Eve Service.



















Everyone likes to see the downtown Christmas lights. These are at Fountain Court by the ferry dock in downtown Bremerton. The weird things in front represent the sails of submarines and spout water in the summer.









This is the middle of downtown Seattle. Another favorite activity of ours is to visit downtown during the holidays. This is the downtown, official Christmas tree and the Macy's star.


Yes, this is R2D2 from Star Wars. He is made from gingerbread and candy and is part of the annual Gingerbread House charity exhibit hosted by the Seattle Sheraton Hotel. We hadn't been for a while and were expecting houses; not Star Wars scenes!


Summary of 2015
We went to Cancun, Mexico in January. We enjoyed the balmy weather away from Seattle, visited the Mayan ruins and the Mexican beaches.


On February 15 we went back to one of our favorite places for our 24th Anniversary. Long Beach, Washington is one of four or five places in the world which claim to have the longest beach on the planet.


Driving to Long Beach means you go through the Columbia Gorge. This is one of the views of the mighty Columbia River.


Alonda had some plants on her Patio Garden which came up nicely for March.


In June, we took the AMTRAK train down into Oregon to visit Jim's sister and her husband in Merrill. The entire trip was quite scenic. You can take it all the way down the Pacific coast to Los Angeles.


Jim and Kay at the train station.


Alonda's sister and a friend came up to visit in June. We took them to visit several of the scenic parts of Washington. This is Mt Rainier from Ft Warden State Park. The US Navy frigate is heading out to sea.


This is the beach at the park.


This is Mt Baker from the park. This place is almost equidistant between two volcanoes.


Early July, we went to Oregon to visit friends from Pakistan. We stopped in Portland to visit the Rose Garden.


These are the Lobo's. They are friends and colleagues from our years in Pakistan.


Also in July, Linda, a friend from Saudi Arabia, came through Seattle. You can imagine how the Saudis looked at her blonde hair.


This summer we put up a hummingbird feeder in the patio garden. We are still getting hummingbirds, even though it is the end of December!


In the summer, while we were visiting some of the parks and hiking in Kitsap County, we noticed how many bird watchers there are. They seem to have a lot of gear.


Our favorite hike of the year was going up Green Mountain. We can see it from our dining room window and is the second highest spot in the county. This is Mount Rainier from the top of Green Mountain.


Upper left of this photo is Seattle as seen from Green Mountain.


On another hike, we were at a place called Buck Lake. As you can see, at that time the lake was pretty low. We had a pretty severe drought this year. As of late December, we have caught up on our rainfall.


This is a hike at a place called Hansville. It feels like you are walking through Mirkwood in The Hobbit.


We visited the Kitsap Fair in August. This is a really cute alpaca (almost like a llama). They are really soft.


This is a decorated cake at the Kitsap Fair. Anyone can enter their craft exhibits.


In September, we were part of the "New Day Northwest" studio audience. This is a locally produced TV magazine show. The hostess was happy to have her picture taken with members of the audience.


At the end of September, Jim had an Esperanto conference in Victoria, B.C. This is the Inner Harbor where seaplanes, boats and ferries all come at the same time.


The night we came back was the Supermoon eclipse. We took our tripod and went over to the parking lot of the local middle school. Everyone else went there, too.


Our final trip of the year was to Puerto Rico. The three ladies are all members of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). The men are the HoDARs (Husbands of DAR).


As the year ends, we want to wish all of you a Happy New Year! We love hearing your comments and hearing about your adventures.