Sydney, Canada - G'day!

Dateline: Sydney and at Sea
Date: October 22, 2007, 2110 hours

Happy 10th Birthday Alyssa Lee Ann Holder from Grandma and Grandpa!!

Good evening from the Grand Princess sailing somewhere in the North Atlantic Ocean moving towards Halifax. We spent a wonderful day in Sydney, where we have decided to try a new career (wine and booze smuggling), and found the best Internet café in all of Sydney.

After a very rough night at sea (Carol wanted to be air lifted off of the ship) in which the wind speed went from soft breeze to strong gale and the ocean waves went from bathtub to freaking whirl pool, we were awakened by a audio-text message from T-Mobile at O’Dark F’ing Thirty Monday morning encouraging us to “Keep in touch with your family while you are traveling in Canada.” At that point we REALLY wanted to reach out and touch some one (right upside the head) at T-Mobile. If you think that the whole 1984 thing was just some author’s imagination, try traveling with a cell phone. The government and private sector is EVERYWHERE and they know where you are!!! Based on Steve’s past work with the NSA he says this is nothing compared to what they could do if we were on “someone’s” enemies list!!! Dick, we are just kidding! (Steve says, “No we’re not….”)

We have been following the fires in Southern California and are hoping all of our friends down there are safe. We heard Arnie declared a state of emergency. Please take care of yourselves and let us know you are safe via email.

We finally got out of our room around 9:00 a.m. and shared a wonderful breakfast with two couples from Canada. When we told then we were interested in moving to Victoria on Vancouver Island down the road sometime, one of the gentlemen brought out his business card and said to call him because he is a real estate agent. Pretty cool. We told him we would be getting in touch with him in about 10 years. The Canadians are such wonderful people, they are hospitable, kind and are always willing to help you in any way they can. We started joking about needing a sponsor…well you never know…

Finally we got off of the ship and went to the Port of Sydney terminal where we logged in and downloaded pictures, uploaded our blog and for the first time videos…. Please enjoy the videos and photos at our Google Picasa Photo Album. We really are having a wonderful time and we want to share our fun with all of our friends and family. We are both also learning a lot about blogging, uploading stuff and creating new materials. A lot of the older people on the ship watch us every day, and they are amazed about the stuff we are putting out there for you all to read.

We did what we usually do, walk around and find our own way…we walked through Sydney and found a liquor store where Carol met this woman who decided to tell her all about her life. She was about 80 years old and proceeded to tell Carol that her boyfriends would take her to the local hotel, pay $25 CAN for the room, take her upstairs and (well, you all know) her brains out and their wives never found out!!! This made us laugh and then tried to avoid her as we left the store and headed towards the old churches in the City.

Our new career as booze smugglers is off to a hot start. You have to understand the scenario here. They charge you about $8.50 for ONE drink, and about $30 for the least expensive bottle of rot-gut wine they have (the California stuff goes for about $45 per bottle). Since they have you as a captive audience, they warn us everyday that “ALL alcohol will be confiscated from passengers and returned to them on the final day of the cruise.” Well, you know how much we love a challenge, so we have been playing this game with the security geeks when we come back on-board, and so far we are kicking their asses. We hope to Hell they are a LOT better at detecting bombs than they are booze, but it gives us something to do on our stops and is a constant source of humor for our fellow-passengers.

After a great day of touring this beautiful little city (under the bluest skies and warm sun we have seen since we left California) we finally boarded the boat to the tunes played by the local retired coal miners playing every “auld lang syne” sort of song you could think of. Not sure if this is a positive or not, but it sort of reminded us of the movie “Titanic.” We will be visiting the graveyard in Halifax tomorrow where they delivered a lot of the bodies after she hit the berg and went down. Local info states they buried 120 of the dead in the graveyard here. More on this bit of trivia tomorrow after we get the skinny at the Museum of the Atlantic.

It is truly amazing what happens to these little cities when the cruise ship lands. The city goes from a population of 1,000 to 4,000 in one day, but the locals are very friendly, are very helpful, and make you feel right at home. Part of taking a cruise is to meet your fellow passengers and the local people, and we have made this a mission as far as we are concerned. We even gave directions to a woman who couldn’t find a local street. Can you believe it, Carol being asked for directions, and further more, she gave the correct ones?

We got back to the ship (boat) whatever and took pictures and videos of the departure…how the captain can make this boat turn around and go the other way is truly amazing…

P.S. Steve just realized he has been spelling St. Lawrence incorrectly…don’t think bad of him…he just can’t spell….

Well, this is the end of the Sydney portion and we will fill it in with Halifax tomorrow. We’re off to dinner and an early bedtime, because there is a LOT of cool stuff to see in Halifax !!