April almost over!

Wow, the last time I blogged was more than a month and a half ago and Torontonians were all digging out during and after a huge snow storm. Today is a nice unusually warm Spring day. We've had nice sunny and warmer than average days the past couple of weeks. It was so nice after the cold and snowy winter. A few days I even turned on my air-conditioning in the house because it got so warm. :)

Anyway, not much is new with me except my sister gave birth to my new niece, Abigail Hope, a few weeks ago. I can only see the pictures posted on their blog so far, but my parents tell me that Abigail looks just like me when I was a month old. I guess I'll take their word for it. :)

I've decided to be totally lazy this Saturday. TTC, the Toronto public transit system went on strike at midnight last night without any warning. Everyone thought it was over with and they reached a deal. I was totally surprised when I woke up and saw the news. I thought it was a error in the system, and they published news from a few years ago. :) I have some stuff I can say, but I'm going to refrain. I just hope the strike is over before the work week starts again. As it is, it's creating havoc for people who normally takes the TTC downtown for the Raptors, Jays or other sporting events. There's a Raptors NBA play off game, and a Toronto FC (soccer) game today. It's going to be crazy for people trying to get down there.

I'm exhausted. Shovelled 3 times. The 3rd time had most snow, prob around 6 to 7 inches. I had nowhere left to put the snow, so I pushed it out to the back laneway where we access our garages. Feeling very bad about it, but my neighbour 2 houses over kept telling me it's okay and even told me not to push the snow to the opposite side, he said no use clearing the laneway for my little piece coz everywhere else is pretty much blocked. Well I hope no one needs to drive through the laneway until the plows come and take the snow away!

Oh my back hurts....

It's March already and we are going through the 2nd snow storm in the week. The first part of this 2nd snow storm has happened, the 2nd part which is the nasty one is coming this afternoon. I do not look forward to that. First I have to go out and shovel the snow from the 1st part. Not even sure where I can put the snow. Then I guess throughout the afternoon I will be shovelling.

And we also lose an hour this weekend, and I have work to do. What an exciting weekend!

I'm back in Toronto! So nice to be back home, even though it's cold and there's lots of snow all around.

Flight delays seem to like me. I'm waiting at the Atlanta airport right now as our flight has been delayed for 1 hour. I hope it's just 1 hour and not more. :)

Georgia Aquarium & Coca Cola World

Today we went to the Georgia Aquarium and Coca Cola World. The Georgia Aquarium is the place that my dad really wanted to visit, and he got his wish today! I have to say that the aquarium is pretty cool. Especially the Ocean Explorer exhibit. It is one giant fish tank with whale sharks and all sorts of fishes! Huge fish too. After lunch, my dad spend some more time looking at the different exhibits while my mom and I walked across to Coca Cola World. It's pretty neat too, but not as good as the aquarium. We got to see some history, and looked at some pop art, and also the machines involved in making and bottling cokes. The neatest part is tasting all different flavours of Coca Cola products from all over the World. There were over 60 flavours. I only tasted 6 or 7 I think. We also got a bottle of free coke to go. Then we have to go through the gift store and I bought a bunch of stuff. :)
So tomorow we leave Atlanta and go back to freezing cold Toronto. I'm glad to go home, but sorry to miss the warm sunshine of the South.

Atlanta, Georgia!

I have arrived in Atlanta! The drive wasn't too bad. We end up stopping 3 times. The first time was about an hour after we left Orlando because I badly needed a washroom break. :) The 2nd time was for lunch and then the 3rd time was for gas and washroom break. I think in total it took us about 7 hours (including the stops). We started at 9:30 am and arrived at our hotel in Atlanta at 4:30 pm.

Tomorrow, we'll be visiting the Georgia Aquarium and hopefully I can visit Coca Cola World as well. Then Wednesday is our flight home to Toronto! I can't beleive the vacation is almost over and I was able to drive from Fort Lauderdale to Orlando and then from Orlando to Atlanta!

We went to Sea World today. Saw two of the shows - Blue Horizons and Believe. Both were great. Blue Horizons had dolphins and whales and birds and divers and acrobats. Believe had Shamu and two other killer whales. One of which is probably still a baby.

Got back to the hotel early afternoon and we all vegged out. I think I'm ready to go home, but still have to drive up to Atlanta tomorrow.

Back on dry land

I'm back on dry land! Although sometimes I feel like I'm still on the ship because when I sit down or when I was in the shower, I still feel the rocking motion of being on the ship. :)

Right now I'm in Orlando. We disembark from the ship this morning without incident. After renting an SUV from the airport, I drove us all up to Orlando without any incidents as well. My mom and I then went shopping while my dad stayed in the hotel room to relax.

Mom and I bought lots of clothes for my soon to arrive little niece (my sister is due in a month or so). And a few items for my nephew Isaac. We bought some clothes for ourselves as wel!

Then we went grocery shopping and bought some Chinese takeout. The rest of the evening is just resting and relaxing in the hotel room. It's nice to been on dry land again!

Here's a picture of one of the ruins in Tulum.

Day 5 - Cozumel, Mexico

I guess I skipped from Day 1 to Day 4. :) Well, internet connection was on and off. So the past few days, I've been to Ocho Rios, Jamaica; Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands, and today we were at Cozumel, Mexico. Highlights so far is swimming with stingrays at Stingray City in Grand Cayman. I even kissed one! The stingrays are really friendly, they swim right up to you and brush up to you. Kinda scary at first, but after a while, you get use to it. The bottom of the stingray is very silky and smooth.

Today was cool too. I didn't actually go to Cozumel. We took a ferry to the mainland straight from the ship. Then we went on a tour to visit Tulum, Mayan ruins. I thought it was beautiful there. My parents didn't enjoy it as much.

Well, so much for now. I'm at sea again now. Heading to Princess Cays, Bahamas. Then it's back to Fort Lauderdale. Then comes our mini road trip up to Atlanta with a stopover in Orlando. Since I'm doing all the driving, please pray that I will drive safely. :)

Cruising Day 1

Just a quick update. Everything was pretty smooth checking in and boarding the ship. It was so fast, I think it may have just taken 10 mins to go through everything. We had lunch on board the ship then just walked around a little bit and took a nap because we had so little sleep last night. Then we had the mandatory drill where we take our life jackets and learn about what to do in case of emergency. After that, it was unpacking as our luggage arrived. Then we rested a bit more and had out to dinner. Dinner was pretty yummy except dessert was just okay. I had a medley of fruits to start, porcini mushroom soup, and rockfish. Dessert was a dark chocolate volcano pudding cake. But it was kinda dry.
After dinner we looked at the boutiques, then went to see the show. It was mainly an introduction of the ship's singers and dancers and other cruise recreation peeps. Then there was a stand-up comedy show. The guy was pretty funny, except my parents didn't understand it so they were kinda bored. :)
Now my parents are sleeping, and I'm in the internet cafe since I don't want to sleep just yet.
Tomorrow is at sea. So I'm just gonna explore the ship and go to a spa thingy and a wine tasting/seminar thingy.

Bleary eyed in Fort Lauderdale

We made it to Fort Lauderdale after a 3 hour delay 1.5 hours waiting at the gate, another 1.5 hours on the plane waiting for the plane to be de-iced. Which means arriving in Fort Lauderdale at 3:25 am instead of 12:10 am. By the time we got to the hotel, it was around 4 am. Then I couldn't really fall asleep, so now I'm plain tired and bleary eyed.

We are boarding the ship early afternoon. I am a bit confused about the shuttle to Port Everglades from the hotel, but I'm not going to stress over it now. Just gonna try to get on the Princess Cruises arranged shuttle. If they don't let me, I'll get a cab. :)

So far the vacation has been a wee bit stressful. I'm hopeful that it's gonna be good from now on.

I'm flying to Fort Lauderdale to night with my parents for our cruise vacation that's leaving tomorrow. There is a big snowstorm happening in Toronto right now. So far, the flight status is still on time. And since the flight doesn't leave until 9 pm, I'm hoping that it will remain on time. :)

It's weather like this that makes me look forward to the sun and sea that I will be encountering during my vacation ever so much more.

New MacBook Pro!

I splurged big time and bought a MacBook Pro. So far I'm really liking it. I'm typing up this post right now on my new toy. :)

Brings me back to the my university days with my handy Macintosh! I guess that dates me. :)

Okey, now should I create yet another webpage for myself using my .Mac account?

I tried a soy caramel macchiato from Starbucks today. I decided that soy with coffee is definitely an acquired taste that I don't think I'll try to acquire. Sticking with non-fat at Starbucks from now on. :)