Thanksgiving Dinner at Thea’s

The fine Thanksgiving dinner at our daughter’s home.  Wonderful food and the aftermath.

Dallas Arboretum 12 Days of Christmas

A partridge in a pear tree

Two turtle doves

Three French hens

Four calling birds

Five golden rings

Six geese a-laying

Seven swans a-swimming

Eight maid a-milking

Nine ladies dancing

Ten lords a-leaping

Eleven pipers piping

Twelve drummers drumming

 

We went to the Dallas Arboretum to see the display of the twelve days of Christmas.  I apologize for the pictures which were affected by the sun and the glass of the carousels.

Day 31 – April 29 - Rome to Chicago to Dallas

Our wake up call was at 6:30.  It was partly cloudy and 52 degrees with 72% humidity and 7 mph winds.  We had coffee in the cabin while dressing.  Our disembarkation number was called at 8:10 and after leaving the ship and collecting our luggage, we were directed to three different buses before getting one with room for luggage and after one false start where someone came running for the bus after we had pulled out and we had to stop for about 5 minutes, we left the port at 8:55.  The bus that they had put us on was for a different terminal first.  We finally got to terminal T5 at 10.  By the time Glenda got us a luggage cart we had just over an hour before our flight.  We checked our bags, cleared 2 security checks and were bused to the departure terminal.  Then as we were boarding, Glenda was pulled over for another search of her carry on and purse and a pat down.  We finally got on board and took off on time at 11:15.  We had very good meals in business class and watch several movies on our personal Samsung Galaxy tablets that they provided.  We landed in Chicago at 3:10 and cleared immigrations and customs and got to our gate for our flight to DFW at 4:10 only to find that the 5:15 flight was delayed due to weather to 6pm then 6:10.  We finally started to board at 5:40 but were stopped after only a few had boarded due to a mechanical problem.  They estimated an additional 30 delay and had all the people already boarded get off.  We finally boarded at 6:20 and took off at 6:45.  We landed in Dallas at 9 and got the luggage at 9:30.  The driver got us home at 10:15.  We were pretty well shot.

Day 30 – April 28 – Naples, Italy

Our wake up call was at 6:50.  It was partly cloudy and 57 degrees with 74% humidity and 8 mph winds.  We had breakfast in the cabin while dressing for our tour at 9 to Herculaneum which was covered in lava by the eruption of Vesuvius while Pompeii was covered in ash.  Our disembarkation package came and showed expedited which meant we would have to carry our own luggage off the ship.  That wouldn’t be possible with 4 large bags and our 2 carry on bags.  I went to the front desk and they changed us to yellow #1 which means that our luggage will be claimed on the dock.  We went to get our stickers for our tour and boarded the bus at 8:55.  First,  we drove to a cameo factory for a demonstration and at 9:55, we drove to Herculaneum.  The maximum crowd was already in the ruins, so we had to wait about 20 minutes until another group left.  After about three fourths of our tour, it started to rain lightly and we managed to keep relatively dry.  Afterwards, we re-boarded the bus at 12 and were back at the terminal at 12:30.  We looked through the shops in the terminal and stopped for pizza and a coke before we re-boarded the ship at 1.  We packed our other 2 bags except for the last minute items by 2:15 and then read until time to clean up for the evening.  We added the last minute items and set the luggage out before going to the casino for about 45 minutes after the last bingo game at 7 which we did not win anything.  At the casino, I broke even while Glenda did not,  After dinner, we returned to the casino for an hour where I won $41 and Glenda did not.  I cashed out my account at the casino and we returned to the cabin at 11.