Welcome … there’s a chill in the air, despite the usual sunny and warm Florida temperatures. It’s a nice change.
Sumatra coffee is brewing, find a mug for a cup. Hot tea and herbal tea is steaming too. I’m having a cappuccino. The photo on the left shows a cup I enjoyed many times on board at Cafe Baci. I’m sure we’ve all had our fill of Christmas cookies. I know I have.
It was a whirlwind holiday season for me. We hadn’t traveled for many years to see family. It was easier and much more comforting to have family visit us. This year, we attempted a road trip.
It was quite an adventure. There was much to see in the 8 1/2 hours it took to get to our destination. Despite getting lost even with a GPS, we arrived safely.
Our hotel was grand. The decorations were stellar. I was concerned it wouldn’t feel like Christmas, but it did—kudos to Hilton.
I spent time with grandkids, great-grandchildren, and my incredible daughter. Christmas is about the little ones. They were excited and filled with the wonder of starry lights in their eyes.
Many wonderful, exciting, and unexpected things happened during this time. We need connections in our lives during family moments. It has reaffirmed that, sometimes, great things will come to those who wait and have faith in humankind.
Life is rich and abundant.
Nature provides us with beauty, joy, and visual colors. It’s time. It is time to observe the things surrounding us.
If you look, you can see that people add variety to life. Observe the many colors, shapes, sizes, and personalities of creation. The variety we see when we look, really look, makes life exciting and unpredictable.
Life is never dull because of it.
May your life be filled with wondrously magical moments of adventure during this New Year, 2024.
In Love and Light,
Namaste,Isadora 🙏🏻
Namaste
I honor the place in you
in which the entire universe dwells.
I honor the place in you
which is of Love, and of Truth,
of Light and of Peace.
When you are in that place in you
and I am in that place in me.
We are One.
Not where I breathe, but where I “LOVE”– “I “LIVE”.
Welcome … grab a cup of coffee, iced or hot tea and herbal tea. I’m having a cappuccino. The photo on the left shows one I enjoyed many times on board at Cafe Baci.
It’s been brutally hot this week in sunny Florida. The pool is the only way to cool down. Gardening will have to wait until the temps drop. The orchids are thrilled with the afternoon rain which brings on the humidity. For me, afternoon humidity means siesta time.
In my last cafe chat, I wrote (read here) about being away from blogging on a pre-birthday cruise. We decided on a cruise now instead of July, my official birthday month, because of the heavy hurricane season predicted for this summer. COVID shut down the cruise industry causing great financial losses. Many cruise ships are departing with less than full passenger capacity, and with huge discounts. It felt safer than my previous cruises with fewer people. Besides the theater and the casino, masks are not required throughout the ship. The staff wore masks everywhere. Some regular activities were canceled, like dancing, karaoke, and bingo. I have to admit I always look forward to dancing. It was a disappointment.
I think you might enjoy a special gesture I received from our assistant dinner hostess:
Celebrity Equinox
Pictured above is Sweet Jaqueline, assistant hostess on our cruise. She created an origami lotus flower for me. It was an unexpected gift from her heart ❤️
With all they do, the last thing she needed was a craft project.
She was missing her mother who is watching her two toddlers. She has a boy and a girl. Yes, she showed me a pic. They are adorable. Four months away from them brought up emotional moments for her. I share the same birthday as her mother. My ❤️ heart sang with joy ❤️
Our first night at dinner Jacqueline introduced herself, I mentioned that I usually forget names. Her eyes twinkled above the mask as she pointed out that I could remember her name because of Jacqueline Kennedy.
Then, she chuckled quickly saying, “But, I wear a uniform.”
Have a great week … Isadora
Alen Charles – head host, Jaqueline – assistant hostess Al – my husband
Welcome … grab a cup of coffee, hot chocolate or herb tea. No desserts today, it looks like I need to get my baking chefs hat on. Now, sit in a comfy chair and let’s chat.
I’ve been away from blogging for a while. It was time for me to take a brief quiet respite. I was out on the high seas gathering energy from the wind and salty air. I was listening to the music of the waves.
Perhaps, in a previous life, I may have been a sailor. I love being out on the ocean with nothing but the sea and the horizon in my view.
I was born in July. Cancer is my astrology sign represented by the crab and water.
I’m renewed and receive enormous vitality from the energy produced by the waves. Breathing in the salty air is invigorating, and listening to the music of the waves is a peacefully soothing sound. Nature is at its perfect best.
Although I had signed up for Wi-Fi, I barely used it. I intended to read, write, and contemplate expanding my knowledge of how to be at peace with my life’s journey.
Undoubtedly, I’ve missed many of your magnificent postings in my absence. Your posts always brighten my day. I look forward to them. Your amazing bodies of work were a significant loss while I was away. I will delight in seeing and reading them as I begin to navigate through the blogs I follow again.
Time permitting, I will add some photographs and highlights of my vacation soon.
I hope you’re all well and living your best lives.
Welcome … pour yourself a cup of coffee; perhaps, hot chocolate or a cup of my new favorite, chai tea. There are a few pastries for you to enjoy too.
Do sit in a comfy chair and let’s chat.
A little music might be nice … hope you like my selection.
My last blog post was on December 22, 2019.
Yes, it does seem like a long time. I’ve missed writing and reading all of your posts. It was due to health issues which I’ll unveil in this post. It may require a few days ofposting.
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Everyone is in the midst of this horrific virus COVID 19. I don’t want to talk about preventions or the illness as I’m not an expert. I’ll be discussing my personal experience with this virus.
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The holidays were in full swing, as was I, when I posted ‘A Christmas Wish for You’. Christmas is the time of year to catch up with family and friends we haven’t seen. Hubby and I were getting ready for a New Year’s Eve cruise too. It would be our 20th cruise. Quite fitting, that we’d be celebrating the ‘New Year’ of 2020 on our 20th cruise.
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We’ve travel on various cruise lines. Our travel agent is aware that we enjoy cruising as our main form of travel. From time to time, she texts or e mails cruises she believes we might enjoy. They’re a bit difficult to resist when I see them in my in-box.
A special deal arrived in one of those e mails for an 8 day cruise beginning the 28th of December on the Costa Luminosa. It would be our 1st time on this cruise line. The agent hadn’t traveled on this line either. She couldn’t give me too many details or logistics but we felt confident that it would be a good choice and it could be a bit of an adventure to try this new ship line. Since hubby’s favorite food is Italian food, I felt he’d savor the food. We booked.
We boarded at 3:00 p.m. on the 28 of December at Port Everglades from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The ship would be leaving port at 11:00 p.m. It was a bit later then other cruise lines we’d traveled with but each one sets their own departure time.
It’s always exciting when you first board a ship. The bright lights, the different decor from one cruise ship line to another, the colors, the crew and the prospect of what your room will be like.We’d booked a suite for the first time. After all, it was our 20th cruise and our Christmas gifts to each other; so, we thought we’d go big.
Because the rooms weren’t ready yet the crew directed everyone to enjoy browsing the ship for locations of the pool, spa, theater, dining room, night spots, etc. and encourage everyone to have a bite to eat at the buffet.
Eventually, we made our way to our room when we heard a couple say, “The rooms were ready.”
We were very disappointed with the room. It was the same size as a balcony. There was supposed to be a small table for in the room for dining in the room. Nope, there wasn’t one. We thought we’d check with the front desk the following day. We knew we wouldn’t be able to change our room due to a fully booked ship but we were curious as to whether or not it was a suite.
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Since we were docking at the Dominican Republic the next day, an island we enjoy visiting since the people are very friendly plus we’d missed a few places on prior visits, and since we’d been on-the-go from 6:00 a.m., we decided to go back to the room and skip our normal after dinner theater show the first night.
The following day, we took a historic tour of the DR. We had a nice covered buggy bike ride with our happy bicyclist named Mario. The turquoise blue Caribbean water with the sun glowing on it was magical.
I’ve added a only few photos in this slide show
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One of the gallery shop we toured had wonderful handmade items from local artists. I couldn’t resist the colorful tote below.
After a long day, we were back on-board with enough time for a shower, cocktails before dinner, our dinner and a show. It was a full day of activity.
Our days continued like this everyday except for two islands we decided to skip because we’d visited them before. We were beginning to feel a bit tired too. We assumed we’d been doing too much. Our bodies were in need of rest, so the pool, leisure lunches, spa treatments, rest on our balcony with a good book and naps replaced those touring days.
The saga with COVID 19 and Me will continue … come on back for the next chapter …
Inside the Mind of Isadora 