Wednesday, January 29, 2014

I'm addicted to eBay

For Christmas, I got a record player. Along with it, I got about 50 records from my grandpa and one from my sisters. Since then, I have doubled my collection. I now have 117 records, though have aren't  my style.

I only have a few that I listen too all the time, but I do try to play a new one every few days.

I started with just browsing eBay, to see what they had. Then I bought a lot of 19. And then a lot of 15. And then 5. And then I started checking the auctions. I have nine somewhere along the postal system right now.

One of my favorites from my Numa is Jimmy Dorsey's Greatest Hits.
One of the smaller lots I bought.
With the five albums above, I got to choose what I wanted. There was a list of about 50 and I picked five and got them. They're all great.




My dad insisted on me having the three Mike Williams albums. He was a singer from Austin who could come play at MSU in the 70s. He actually stayed at my grandparents' house once. His records are always on repeat at my house.

This is actually the first record I bought, before I even knew if I was getting a record player.
When I was a kid, Michael Martin Murphey played at the Wichita Theatre every Christmas and we went. Wildfire and Geronimo's Cadillac and Fiddlin' Man are the best songs ever and this record has them all. We have a Christmas ornament that he signed years back.

This I got from my sisters. It was $50 and I told them it was the only thing I wanted from them. They split the cost.
I actually had forgotten about all of the not so subtle hints I had dropped about the Doctor Who record that I wanted. When I opened it, I had no clue what it was. It's great.

I used to watch Shirley Temple movies on VHS with my Nan all the time.
I love this.

A small selection of the musicals I have
I couldn't take a picture of every musical I own on vinyl, so here are the ones I keep on my special
shelf. You can see that Carousel is out of order.

Another 50 records are in one of my dresser cabinets.
The records in here are ones that I listen to on occasion, but not as much as the shelf records. I also have a box under my bed with 50 of the records from the 50s that I probably won't listen to.

The nine I have in the mail now are mostly 45s. I have a Beatles album too, but most are Lou Monte children's 45s. Because I bought those, I obviously had to get a rack for them...I bid on one that came with a Beatles 45, but I was severely outbid, so I found another and bought it.

Monday, January 13, 2014

Stop 3- Puerto Vallarta

Part 5

I love Puerto Vallarta. That is no question. I spring break there every year with a big group of people. There were only five this time, though, so it was a bit different.

We started by taking a taxi to the Malecon, where all the action happens. It's the ocean view street in town. We only had about 200 people try to sell us things, so it was all good!

We also find wifi all over the road, so yay for that!

We see this pole every year, but we've never seen it in action. WOW
Two people climbed up the pole and and began winding a rope around the top. When they were done, two others climbed up too. They played some music as they sat on the square at the top and then tied themselves up and fell over. The winded rope made them spin as they descended so they soon reached the ground.

I had to stop for gelato
The whole street was decorated for Christmas!




We made a stop by the cathedral that we always pass because it's so beautiful. There was a mass going on so we didn't go inside.


Then we walked to Pipi's. It's a favorite for us. The servings are massive and we all have the WIFI code. We took the back route because we never know which street to turn on. If you just walk left from the cathedral, you'll eventually hit it. We made a note of which Malecon road takes us there though, so we'll be good next time.

When we got back on the boat, I noticed something. Our first time in Puerto Vallarta, we wanted to go to the bull fights, but it had been shut down (Thanks PETA.) The bull ring was right outside our boat! It looks like it's still running, but it isn't. It's just built well I guess. I always hope it'll come back so I can see it.

The bull fighting ring
Now only 60 days until I'm back there!

Saturday, January 11, 2014

Stop 2- Mazatlán

Part 4

We went to Mazatlán the next day. It had been several years since ships docked there. They had high crime for a while. We were their fifth boat in 10 months. Now, in March alone, they'll have 17! It was a beautiful city, so that's good.

You can tell it isn't as touristy as most. Those aren't hotels.
We did an excursion that showed us the whole town since we would have no clue what to do on our own. It was fun!

The Cathedral
The Cathedral in Mazatlan was built in the late 1800s with donor money. At one point right before it was finished, they ran out of money. A Jewish group in the area donated the rest needed. That's why in the top of the picture above, you can see a Star of David in between the towers. In each stained glass window inside, a Star of David is in the top.




Mazatlán is famous for cliff divers, so we went and watched them too. When a crowd gathers, someone goes and jumps.







We went to a resort for lunch, a show, and some beach time after that. We also got to shop around a bit.

...
They only use corn tortillas. I CAN EAT HERE.


The beach was kind of pathetic, so we just went back to the boat after the show and I didn't even take a picture. Believe it or not, I didn't touch any sand on the entire trip.

Thursday, January 9, 2014

Stop 1- Cabo San Lucas

Part 3

I've never been to Cabo before. My parents love it though. It was our first stop on the boat. We didn't have to make a time change here. We went crazy on time changes! We had to go back two hours once we got to LA. Forward one at both Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta, and then back one each day for the next two. Once we got home, it was forward two more.

But I digress...

We got to Cabo a bit after noon on that day. All morning we sailed along the coast.





Selfie from the balcony
We had to tender to the port, which means that the boat anchored in the middle of the water, not on a dock. We took boats to the dock from the ship. Our tenders were the lifeboats. It was really neat to see them being lowered.


80 people can fit in each one abouts
Once we got to shore, we were going to rent a boat tour so we had to hunt down a guy. It wasn't hard. Every person left and right was selling boat tours.

There were some cliff divers who are a lot braver than me
That's Scooby Doo!
The Pacific Keyhole
The Arch

Boy did these guys stink!
Cabo is at the very bottom of the weird part of Mexico that's still kind of California but isn't. Baja! This is the last part of it.
Land's End
After the boat ride, we walked to the Cabo Wabo Cantina, Sammy Hagar's bar. It was sadly too crowded to get food.


After the Cabo Wabo, we went back to the boat. We had until evening in town, but there wasn't much to do. I wanted to go to CrossFit Cabo, but dad said no. I'd probably go again, but stay at a hotel.

Monday, January 6, 2014

Cruise like a Norweigan

This is the days we spent at sea and the journey home. The individual ports will come later. I had too many pictures to do one massive post.


The water never ended
After waiting in massive lines on the Sunday, we finally got on the boat. Of course though, we can't actually go to our rooms until hours later.

The boat was still decorated for Christmas!
We had never been on this boat before, so we didn't know where anything was or how it worked. We found the buffet though, and all of the people, of course.

We were eating and Daryl began to look around. 

"I'm not liking this ship thing."
"Why?"
"The ice cream isn't self serve."

She was right, mostly. The ice cream we'd found was scooped by a guy (plus the vanilla was sugarless, but that's another story.) The scooper was only open in the AFTERNOON. What?! Any cruisers KNOW that ice cream is a staple with every single meal. Upset, we kept walking and guess what she found?


She found the self serve machine.
This machine wasn't much better than the scooper. It was only open in the afternoons too and kids were always dropping their cones on the floor.

Eating like this is why I actually lost weight on the cruise. I still ate as much as I wanted, but good foods! 
One night at dinner, we were talking about when we were kids. Kacie's thumb incident came up. It was my birthday party and she was four. She dropped the ball on her finger and broke it. Now it looks like a toe.

Her thumbs
This scary guy was waiting for us one night
I don't have pictures from the shows, but they were all really good. The Second City improv group was there and hilarious and Dave Naster, another comedian. There was also a phenomenal magician. WOW.

On the last sea day, we got bored. By this time, I had read three books: An Abundance of Katherines- John Green and the first two Lord of the Rings books. I'm working on the third still. LOVE. Still, it was cold outside and I didn't want to sit in my room reading.

Dad decided it was BINGO time.

We bought a huge package for the game.
Cruise BINGO works like so:
Buy your package for between $50 and $80. Open your Instant Wins and see you won $2. Tear your raffle tickets and put them in the gold drum. Decide who can play six cards and who only has the attention span for three. Play BINGO.

I got the six card paper and Dad played the three. Daryl, being under 18, got to play one card for free. There are three games per BINGO game. 
-One line
-Four corner
-Blackout
Blackout gives the biggest payoff.

None of us did well at all the first two games and Daryl did horrible during blackout, but guess what?

After several great calls, she had won 
Daryl won blackout BINGO. She had to split the winnings with another lady, but still made out with $100.

We then dominated at Broadway Tune trivia, but didn't win. There were three I didn't know. 
I remember not knowing the following:
-Don't Cry for Me Argentina
-Surrey with the Fringe on Top
-Oliver

We all got lemon sorbet during our last dinner. It was the best dessert. I will sure miss steak every night. We had to wake up early the next morning to get off of the boat. It ended up being unnecessary, because our plane was delayed 45 minutes.
Daryl took a nap in LAX