Points South

From the look of the graphic accompanying this blog, you could rightfully assume Cindy Lou and I are off on a cruise. Indeed we are! It will be our first.

Actually, our first cruise was supposed to be the first fall Cindy Lou was out of the classroom. I thought it would be a spectacular way to celebrate her successful run as a classroom teacher. Unfortunately, fall 2005 was also the season of Hurricane Katrina. As with this trip, we had hoped to hop across the Gulf of Mexico for a restful and fun week. Our Carnival ship was to depart Mobile. After Katrina hit the Gulf coast and it was apparent how much death and destruction she wrought, we tried to cancel our trip. Carnival said no. We were really distressed, thinking how hard it would be to drive through the hammered South just to get on a boat for fun. Within a couple days of our departure, however, Carnival contacted us with the cancellation notice. It seems that our boat was to be used for emergency housing in the short term. Good for Carnival.

This time, however, we picked a travel time that was outside the hurricane season. And to make it even sweeter, this time we depart from the Port of New Orleans, our adopted ‘favorite big city in the US.‘ This time, too, we’re on Norwegian Cruise Line, a company that promotes ‘freestyle cruising‘ that lets you eat whenever you want. No formal dress. Phew. I don’t know about you, but I hate to think about taking a tuxedo on vacation.

And to make our embarkation day even better, the New Orleans Saints host the Minnesota Farves at home on that very day for the NFL divisional championship. We should be able to watch the game on TV as the boat leaves port for our journey across the Gulf. Go Saints!

As you might imagine, there is still much to do today. I’ve got the newspaper stopped, but need to get word to the post office yet. And, no, I haven’t packed yet, but I do have an impressive pile of stuff gathered from around the house that needs to find a spot in the car. So we’re doing okay.

Oh. And to round out this trip -- this time celebrating Cindy Lou’s birthday in late January -- we travel over to the space coast of Florida to watch Endeavour launch on Super Bowl Sunday. At least we hope it launches that day. All things seem to be in order so far with the shuttle. And after that early morning launch, we’ll have a few days on Cocoa Beach to soak up some sun before we head back north for one more month of winter. I don’t know how often I’ll be able to file an updated blog entry, but I’m confident I’ll be able to send up a few.

You know, I really like this retired thing.

Today’s elder idea: 2010: The year of the Freestyle Vacation.

Norwegian Cruise Line