MINNEAPOLIS, MINNEHAHA, MINNESOTA—THAT’S A LOT OF WATER!

Posted on September 14, 2017 by Elaine-iaK's Travels

“Minn” in the Dakota language means “water”, and there’s plenty of it in Minnesota—more than 10,000 lakes!

How did we end up in Minnesota, anyway? It all started from two separate paths that met up perfectly in Minneapolis. U.S. Masters Swimming Summer Nationals was scheduled for early August, 2017, and it’s a state we had never been to during our travels. I had also missed the National Senior Games when it was held previously at the very same pool, so I thought it would be a great opportunity.

Meanwhile, I had been telling Bruce over the past four years how great the American Steamboat Company’s “American Queen” was when I took my mom on a paddle wheel cruise down the Mississippi, from Memphis to New Orleans. It was an experience I thought he would like very much.

One day last year, Bruce greeted me at the door holding the new American Queen Steamboat Company brochure, exclaiming, “I found a cruise for us!” I figured he had finally decided he wanted to try one of their one-week cruises from Memphis. Instead, he picked out their 23-day re-positioning river cruise that paddles down the Mississippi from Red Wing, Minnesota to New Orleans!

It just so happened that cruise was scheduled for one week after Nationals, and he had a plan. (I sometimes wonder what’s rolling around in his head when he takes breaks from his glass work, kicks back on the bed, and stares at the ceiling…) “How about if you swim at Nationals, and then we’ll rent a car and do a road trip around northern Wisconsin? We can return the car back in Minneapolis, and then we’ll take the cruise?” he asked.

Adding up the days, this plan amounted to five weeks of travel—piece of cake for me, but not so much for Bruce. “Are you sure you want to be away for THAT long?” I asked. “We did a seven-week road trip two years ago, didn’t we?” Yeah, good point. “What about your Etsy business?” I asked. “We’ll take it with us!” he replied.

Fifteen minutes later, I was on the phone and the cruise was booked. (By booking immediately before the early-booking deadline, we saved $3,000 and were able to get one of the lowest-priced cabins that book up quickly.)

Fast forward to May of this year, the swimming part of the plan started to unravel (as you may have read in my July 8 post). Due to injuries, I didn’t know whether I would be able to compete at Nationals after all. The entry deadline was prior to my open water swim, and I wouldn’t have time to prepare for my usual competitive events. (There’s a big difference between swimming the 200 Meter Butterfly or Breaststroke in a Nationals competition and a 1K freestyle fun race in a lake. Others may argue with me on this point, but I’ll take the 1K as the easier-on-the-body-and-mind event.)

The deadline came, and I knew I wouldn’t be ready to compete at Nationals, so I let it pass. We decided to go anyway, see (and cheer on) our friends, and stick with our travel plans.

We arrived in Minnesota on August 1 and took their excellent Metro Transit train downtown to our hotel. The afternoon was spent taking a long walk down to the river and across the bridge for lunch, and then back downtown.

Here are some scenes from our first day in Minneapolis:

Downtown Minneapolis

Across the bridge from downtown Minneapolis

Minneapolis has a thriving foodie food truck scene!

Next up: The M’s have it! Minnehaha (Ha-ha!) Falls, Minneapolis, and Mall of America

FATHOM- A UNIQUE WAY TO GIVE BACK

Posted on January 13, 2017 by Elaine-iaK's Travels

There are so many different ways to open your heart, and give back to society. Whether it’s through volunteering in your own community, joining an overseas mission with a church, or opening up your wallet; it all helps make our world a better place.

Carnival Cruises presented a unique opportunity to give back by launching Fathom, their one-ship (“Adonia”) cruise line and presenting the concept of “Impact Travel,” Carnival’s trademarked name for cruising with a purpose.

Taking the focus off the “it’s all about me” attitude of passengers that cruise companies cater to, most people who book a Fathom cruise do so with the purpose of participating in several of the Impact Travel volunteer opportunities available on shore in the Dominican Republic. Although volunteering is not required, typically 95% of the passengers on most of the cruises have done so, since Fathom launched in April 2016. (Unfortunately, though, as I explained in my previous post, Fathom will cease to exist at the end of May this year. More details will follow in a later post.)

Once aboard ship, we discovered a “feel” among the passengers unlike anything we had previously experienced during our years as guest lecturers/ craft instructors. Instead of an attitude of entitlement (“What’s in it for me?”), many of the passengers we talked to were eager to arrive in Puerto Plata, in the Dominican Republic (“the DR”) and volunteer during each of our 3-1/2 days in port. For those who didn’t sign up online ahead of time for the available volunteer activities, they were disappointed to learn many of them were booked full. (All opportunities were located a bus ride away from the port, requiring buses to transport volunteers to their activities.)

Wait lists were started for the various activities, but the lists grew longer as passengers came back after the first day of volunteering and shared their excitement about the impact they had made through their efforts.

In addition, passengers were only permitted to sign up online in advance for three activities– one for each full day; however, groups were dispatched in the morning and afternoon allowing for doubling up each day in some cases. As enthusiasm grew for volunteering, several passengers added to their three activities; so, they could make more of a positive impact on this impoverished country.

This is the attitude of the typical Fathom passenger. Most didn’t care about the lack of over-the-top amenities and entertainment now standard on the newest mega-ships. Instead, passengers lingered over coffee in the dining room after dinner and shared their experiences of the day. The most common question asked was, “What ‘Impact’ activity did you do today?” That was often followed by asking, “How was it?” Passengers eagerly spoke proudly of the impact their group made that day. For those who worked at Chocal, we shared the all-important numbers: pounds of cacao beans sorted, pounds of cacao nibs sorted from shell fragments, quantity of chocolate bars wrapped or packaged; and, at the nursery, the quantity of bags filled with dirt and seedlings planted. (When those numbers were revealed during the bus ride back to ship, the passengers broke out in applause and cheers.)

Think back on the last cruise you took, if you have taken an ocean cruise. Does any of this sound familiar to you? I didn’t think so…

Next up: PREPARING TO MAKE AND IMPACT

Adonia, as we depart Miami:

The Adonia was a former Renaissance cruise ship and has a capacity of 704 passengers.

The Ocean Grill was an alternative dining room with a $25pp charge.

This very cool huge photo of a diver was on the stairway landing wall on the way to the gym and spa.

We were given a free upgrade to an outside cabin. The large window was nice to have! Behind me are the closets and bathroom.

Miami

Notice the backed-up traffic heading towards the beach. Ugh!

This bridge leads to homes of the 1%-ers.

It takes a 1%-er to own a house and yacht like that!

Ditto!

Impact Travel: A New Adventure

Posted on December 18, 2016 by Elaine-iaK's Travels

After a few dozen big ship cruises as a guest lecturer (mostly travel photography) and crafts instructor, I was ready for a different cruising experience. Back in 2002, my mom had wanted to take a river cruise on the waterways of Belgium and Holland, so we paired up for a non-working cruise and headed to Europe. One time on an intimate riverboat was all it took; I was hooked and never thought I would return to the big ships again.

That all changed when some friends bounced an idea off us that was different than the typical big ship cruising experience: impact travel. I had never heard of the concept in cruising, but Fathom, a one-ship cruise line launched by Carnival Cruises last April, had done just that.

Fathom’s 704-passenger former Renaissance ship, Adonia, made headlines by being the first cruise ship to take American passengers to Cuba; but, what I didn’t know was that the ship sails to Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic for one-week impact travel cruises on alternate weeks.

Puerto Plata wasn’t on the top of my bucket list for destinations—I had been there before as a teenager on a family cruise—but this opportunity intrigued me. After hearing David and Melody’s excitement about the concept and their idea of having us experience it together, I did some further research. Bruce and I both loved what we discovered, so we signed on. After visiting them in Vero Beach, we’ll drive down to Miami and hop aboard Adonia together.

Now, before I explain further and (possibly) get you excited about the concept of impact travel, I recently learned from two different USA Today articles that Fathom will cease operations in spring of this year. The ship has been sailing far under capacity, and the cruise line is losing money. Unless you book your cruise and travel soon, you will be out of luck.

We got an affordable deal– $850 for BOTH of us, including port fees and taxes, for a one-week cruise. Even at this great price, it is doubtful the ship will sail anywhere near capacity.

On our day of departure, we will set sail from Miami to Puerto Plata. During our transit, we will participate in workshops to learn about the culture and prepare us for our chosen volunteer activities. While the ship stays docked at Amber Cove in Puerto Plata, passengers will have the option of being tourists, volunteering, or both. Those of us who will be volunteers will spend three days immersing ourselves in the local culture and collaborating with local volunteers on community projects that will have an impact on education, environment, economy, and more.

The need in Dominican Republic is tremendous. The poorest half of their population receives less than one-fifth of the country’s annual GDP, and most of them live below the poverty line. Job prospects for women are especially scarce.

While looking over the various choices of how we could help make an impact, one option stood out above and beyond the rest: Chocal, a women’s cooperative that cultivates organic cacao plants and produces chocolate from bean to bar.

Under the guidance of Dominican Institute for Integral Development (IDDI), Chocal has been successful in creating jobs, providing local cacao growers with an outlet to sell their plants, and generating income from the sales of their organic chocolate. Along the way, the women have learned new skills and have been afforded the opportunity to continue their education. Flexible work hours have allowed the women to do all this while still caring for their families.

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As volunteers, we will participate in the complete cacao production cycle: from planting and cultivating the organic cacao trees, to sorting cacao beans, to molding chocolate, and packaging the final product for sale in their gift shop and aboard Adonia.

According to Fathom’s website, by helping to improve production and increase sales, we will be helping Chocal to thrive, so it can hire more local women and provide more income to the region.

This is a win-win! Visiting a full-production cacao plantation was on my bucket list; however, trying to incorporate it as part of a vacation with my husband was proving to be difficult. Bruce is totally on board with this and has even enthusiastically agreed with my idea of volunteering all three available days at Chocal rather than choosing two other activities. Our friends will also be joining us on one of the days at Chocal, and then spending another day making clay water filters. I’m sure we’ll have a lot of stories to share that evening over dinner back onboard ship!

Stay tuned for more on this upcoming adventure!*

*Unfortunately, thieves have gotten smarter and figured out how to prey on travel bloggers, so for security reasons (even though we live in a guarded community and have a house sitter), our travel dates will not be noted, and future posts will not be published until after we return.

Excerpts From a Past Travelogue: South America, 2009 – Cruising from Peru to San Diego

Posted on September 28, 2011 by Elaine-iaK's Travels

Before starting my travel blog, I used to send travelogues of my journeys by e-mail to my friends and family. I saved some of those e-mails as a travel journal to look back on, so I thought I would share some of those with you.

The following are excerpts from travels in South America, in 2009. After a pre-cruise visit to Valparaiso, Chile, Mom & I boarded Royal Caribbean’s “Radiance of the Seas”, for a “working” cruise, to San Diego. On board, we taught arts & crafts classes to the passengers:

Hola!

I am at an internet shop in Lima and ít´s only $1/ hr. for internet.

The Radiance of the Seas is a fabulous ship! The Jewel of the Seas (sister ship) used to be my favorite ship on Royal Caribbean, however, the Radiance was the first in its class.

Leo, my contact person on the cruise staff told me that the company dumped tons of $$ into this ship to make a big splash and great impression when it was revealed. Although it is now 8 years old, it looks just beautiful! There is so much gorgeous wood used throughout the ship, wonderful glass art work, tasty decor in all the public areas, etc. It is definitely the most tastefully decorated and built-out ship I have ever been on.

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The food on the ship has been good, however, they serve much more fish than shellfish; typical of Royal Caribbean as compared to Princess. I miss the shrimp I ate often on the Sun Princess, but the fish is good, too… And, the chocolate desserts are delicious, as was last night´s Dulce de Leche Cheesecake!

A favorite place to enjoy lunch on the Jewel of the Seas was the Seaview Cafe. They have one on this ship, as well, so I enjoyed a nice salad while dining near the railing at the aft end of the ship. It was sunny and in the low-70´s- beautiful! And, it´s a quaint little seafood cafe with a great ambiance inside and out.

As for the entertainment, it is fabulous! We saw a terrific aerialist duo on the first night, the Beatle Maniacs (Beatles tribute band), a couple of nights ago, and a great production show last night. Overall, I always find the guest entertainers to be great on Royal Caribbean. And, their Brazilian band in the Atrium is awesome!

Our cabin is in a fantastic location- if it ever gets rough. We are located at the bottom, on deck 2, mid-ship. Excellent!

Now, for the ports… Lima is a very busy and loud city. And, it´s not very photogenic in the city. But, we didn´t take a tour today and really didn´t see much. After taking the shuttle in, we walked up to the Indian Market and other crafts markets and bought a few things.
Then, we headed back and here I am at the internet. Not much seen and nothing photographed, except at the markets…

From what I understand, the northern part of Peru and the inland regions are a must-see! Since we are on a ship and it can´t be done, I am satisfied just doing what I did. That will have to wait for another day, I´m afraid.

Our last port was La Serena, Chile. The free shuttle took us into town and we spent a full day there. I enjoyed the architecture, the people were very warm and friendly, and it was a comfortable place to get around on foot.

The big surprise of the day was being there for the 84th anniversary of the military and local police. There was a ceremony and parade, so we got caught up watching all the festivities. The highllight was seeing all the groups of school kids lining up to parade in their school uniforms; each school a different one. The kids were so friendly and happy! And, they loved being photographed. More importantly (to them, at least), was seeing how they looked in the photographs! They crowded around after each one so they could see themselves and giggle. Cute! It was so much fun.

After roaming around the crafts market and picking up a couple of things, we headed next door to the largest grocery store I had ever seen! I bought chocolate, of course, as well as some spices for Bruce. Then, we stopped over at the deli and picked up a couple of empanadas to enjoy for our little lunch. Delicious!

Overall, it was an enjoyable time walking around the town and having a relaxing, slow-paced day. And, it was nice not being herded around on a tour. As a matter of fact, the only tour we booked is for Ecuador, and it´s only for 31/2 hours. It will be a relaxing cruise…

Following our stop in Peru, we visited Manta, Ecuador, and Puntarenas, Costa Rica, before ending our cruise in San Diego. Due to an outbreak of the swine flu, in Mexico, we had to skip our ports in that country.

Here are a few photos from Ecuador:

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And, a few from Costa Rica:

Our cruise ended in San Diego, so I will leave you with a view of downtown, from the ship:

Elaine-iaK's Travels: A Traveler's Tales of People, Places, Photos, Pools… and CHOCOLATE!

Tag Archives: cruise

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNEHAHA, MINNESOTA—THAT’S A LOT OF WATER!

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FATHOM- A UNIQUE WAY TO GIVE BACK

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Impact Travel: A New Adventure

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Excerpts From a Past Travelogue: South America, 2009 – Cruising from Peru to San Diego

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