The Sea Witch Stole My Voice! Our Two Week Land and Sea Adventure! COMPLETE 4/12

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Rain, rain go away!! Can't believe it followed you guys.

I know, it was so depressing!

I'm also very impressed with all there is to do. I had no idea.

Yep, there is always tons to do. If you are bored on the cruise it is all on you as they certainly go overboard making sure there is always something going on.

 

[Mysteria]

I've never cruised but I want to! I am afraid of getting seasick. I get such bad motion sickness. I think we are going to try it for our 5th anniversary next year though. Just a 3 or 4 day out of a close port. Will try it with the scopolamine patch. Other friends with bad motion/seasickness have had success with it.

If that works out you can bet your booty I'll be planning a Disney cruise next!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

I've never cruised but I want to! I am afraid of getting seasick. I get such bad motion sickness. I think we are going to try it for our 5th anniversary next year though. Just a 3 or 4 day out of a close port. Will try it with the scopolamine patch. Other friends with bad motion/seasickness have had success with it.

If that works out you can bet your booty I'll be planning a Disney cruise next!

I get motion sickness easily as well, especially when traveling in a car. Heck Mickey's Philharmgic makes me sick (magic carpet scene). I can't even play video games for longer than 20 minutes as they give me motion sickness as well. Can't tell you how many times I felt like I was going to pass out from playing Mario Kart on the Wii. Ridiculous!

So I was a bit nervous about sea sickness but lucky me it wasn't a problem at all! Too bad that didn't stop me from getting sick in other ways....

 

[puggymom]

Just got all caught up.

THe cruise sounds so relaxing, I would love to sit in one of those lounge chairs with a good book

Hope the feet and weather get better!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Just got all caught up.

THe cruise sounds so relaxing, I would love to sit in one of those lounge chairs with a good book

Hope the feet and weather get better!

The cruise was great and there was so much to do. I didn't get to do half the things I would have liked to, I guess that is why I'll need to cruise again!

 

[EastYorkDisneyFan]

even with a second cruise you still can't make it to everything.

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Today was our day off from hiking and boy did I need it! Oddly enough it wasn't my legs that were sore, just my knees, made it very painful going up and down the stairs.

We didn't get up to much that morning. Dad played a game of squadleader (ASL) with Alek and Erich. It is a super boring WWII game. Yawn! So while they did that I hung out on the computer and uploaded some photos onto Facebook.

Once they finished the game Dad said that he wanted to take us on a walking tour of the neighbourhood. Well of course the whole neighbourhood is on a hill so I told him so much for our day off of hiking. :wink:

We walked around for about 2 hours just looking around. Dad was trying to convince us that we should move out there. He kept making me take real estate fliers from all the houses that were on sale. Here are two of my prospective houses:

http://www.realtor.ca/propertyDetails.aspx?propertyId=8155337

http://www.realtor.ca/propertyDetails.aspx?propertyId=8300162

Yeah, I don't think I am going to be able to buy a house out there for quite a while.

On our walk we ran into Dad's real estate agent so we had to stand around and talk to him for a while. Dad was trying to sell us future clients. Hmmm, I think dad is grossly overestimating the income of a full-time student.

The further up the hill we got the more undeveloped it was, all the lots at the top were empty and still for sale, the neighbourhood is still in the development stage, Dad said most of the homes were only a few years old. Apparently lots of the teens like to go up to the top of the neighbourhood to party as there is nobody around.

The thing I really like about Dad's neighbourhood is that all the houses are different. I didn't see a single house that was the same. They all have the same type of styling and colour tones but each is a different design. I hate cookie-cutter neighbourhoods where every house is exactly the same, unfortunately that is all they really seem to build now except for the rare exception like this neighbourhood.

We eventually got back to the house, me with about 10 real estate flyers in my hand. Maria had prepared lunch for us. Some kind of pasta with cinnamon and tomato sauce. Once again Angelica was pretending to be invisible and did not eat with us. We could tell that Maria was starting to be in a bad mood as she sat at the table frowning and jabbing at her food.

After lunch Dad piled us all in the car as he was going to take us on a little tour around the Okanagan Valley, we were going to stop at some wineries as well. Maria decided to tag along despite the fact that she said she was not feeling well.

We stopped at the nursing home to visit Grandma before going off on our drive. She was in good spirits as usual and told us that "her mother had 5 children with the neighbour". We were all rolling in laughter at that. Of course what she meant to say was that the neighbour was a midwife and helped her deliver 5 children, I don't think she realized what she had actually said.

After our visit our tour began. Dad took us to the super pricey Predator Ridge neighbourhood. This place is ridiculously expensive. The homes are no nicer than those in Dad's neighbourhood plus the view is not as nice but they all sell for over $1,000,000 because there is a golf course and a health club. Also this super luxurious resort is getting built in the area, Sparkling Hill Resort and Wellness Hotel, the first hotel project in North America to incorporate Swarovski Crystal elements into every aspect of its design. I wonder how much they are going to charge for one night in this place? http://www.sparklinghill.com/

Moving on from Predator Ridge we started to drive around the Okanagan Lake

At this point Maria told Dad to pull over as he was "too distracted" pointing things out to us and she wanted to drive. I felt much safer while Dad was driving "distracted" than with her driving but he let her. Scary!

We arrived at the first winery, Gray Monk Estate Winery.

Maria refused to come in and stayed in the car. Why on earth did she come if all she planned on doing was staying in the car being grumpy?!

So the rest of us went in, Dad and I tasted a few different wines, Alek and Erich had no interest so they just browsed the shop and then played their video games.

Alek found this book about Canada's version of a Lake Monster

If you are interested you can read about it here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogopogo

Alek and Erich waiting on Dad and I as we picked out some wines. I ended up buying two bottles, Dad got five.

We drove up the hill a little bit more and stopped at another winery. This one was much smaller and we were the only customers there as it was almost time for them to close up shop. Dad bought two more bottles of wine, I didn't get anything here.

We started to drive back towards Vernon now, this time we were driving along the Kalamalka Lake. I had Maria pull over at an overlook so I could get some pictures.

The two oddly shaped hills in the center of this picture are where we went on our first hike. You can also see how smoky it is starting to get in the valley....

Dinner that night was at a small Thai restaurant that Dad and Maria eat at often. The owner is there every night and knows all of her customers by name and greets them with hugs.

I was not looking forward to this meal as I am super picky and well Thai food is a bit too "exotic" for me. I pretty much just ate rice that night. I did enjoy a nice White Russian from the bar though.

Here's one where they actually look normal

Our dessert that night, fried bananas

Alek and Erich were really starting to get on my nerves by this point. They just kept picking on me over everything so after a few days of it I was about ready to snap. That night by the time we got back to dad's house I was in a foul mood. Dad even suggested that perhaps I should come out and visit separately next time to avoid the constant insults that they like to throw my way. I don't know why they think it is so much fun to constantly bring me down all the time.

Everybody went to bed early that night (except for me) as we were leaving early in the morning for another hike that was a two hour drive away. Alek and Erich better watch themselves as they might find themselves getting pushed off a cliff this time instead of dangling themselves off one for fun. Thankfully Maria was not going on this hike so that improved my mood a little bit.

I stayed up probably until midnight reading before I was tired enough to go to sleep.

 

[PopArtGal]

Thanks for showing us the cruise documents.

It's awesome as I don't think I'll ever do a Disney cruise.

 

[PopArtGal]

I guess stepfamilies are supposed to be non-pleasant. So don't worry about it. After all, they don't live down the road

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Thanks for showing us the cruise documents.

It's awesome as I don't think I'll ever do a Disney cruise.

Awww, any particular reason you don't want to cruise?

I guess stepfamilies are supposed to be non-pleasant. So don't worry about it. After all, they don't live down the road

True, but we are stuck dealing with her even after Dad is gone. She is 20 years younger than him. In his will he left 99% of the house to my brothers and I and 1% to her which pretty much means that we will own the house but she gets to live there for as long she wants.

 

[Mysteria]

I get motion sickness easily as well, especially when traveling in a car. Heck Mickey's Philharmgic makes me sick (magic carpet scene). I can't even play video games for longer than 20 minutes as they give me motion sickness as well. Can't tell you how many times I felt like I was going to pass out from playing Mario Kart on the Wii. Ridiculous!

So I was a bit nervous about sea sickness but lucky me it wasn't a problem at all! Too bad that didn't stop me from getting sick in other ways....

Sorry to hear you have bad motion sickness as well. It sucks. Must say very glad to hear it didn't bother you on the cruise! Sorry you got sick in other ways too.

Now off to catch up.

 

[Mysteria]

Yay for winery tours! We plan on one or two next week in the Niagara region. I haven't thought about ogopogo (mosnster/legend/myth?) in ages. Poor ogo. He's just misunderstood.

Are your brothers sound sleepers?

So stepmonster gets 1% huh? Ok, then tell her she can live in 1% of the house.

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Yay for winery tours! We plan on one or two next week in the Niagara region. I haven't thought about ogopogo (mosnster/legend/myth?) in ages. Poor ogo. He's just misunderstood.

Are your brothers sound sleepers?

So stepmonster gets 1% huh? Ok, then tell her she can live in 1% of the house.

Unfortunately the way the will is written it doesn't work that way. Basically it says that she is entitled to live in the house for as long as she wants but she will have to pay the taxes/upkeep if she chooses to do so. My brothers and I can not live in/take possession of the house while she lives there. So basically all the will is doing is preventing her from renting/selling the place and taking all the money away from us.

 

[Mysteria]

Unfortunately the way the will is written it doesn't work that way. Basically it says that she is entitled to live in the house for as long as she wants but she will have to pay the taxes/upkeep if she chooses to do so. My brothers and I can not live in/take possession of the house while she lives there. So basically all the will is doing is preventing her from renting/selling the place and taking all the money away from us.

That's too bad. I was picturing you guys giving her a closet under the stars. Kind of Harry Potter style.

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

That's too bad. I was picturing you guys giving her a closet under the stars. Kind of Harry Potter style.

 

[stacopp]

Sorry to hear about your issues with the step-mother- been there/ done that- thankfully after 20 years they split up! Another great update on the cruise- we are going on a short one in December (3 nights) and your trip report has really helped!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Sorry to hear about your issues with the step-mother- been there/ done that- thankfully after 20 years they split up! Another great update on the cruise- we are going on a short one in December (3 nights) and your trip report has really helped!

Unfortunately I don't think we will be so lucky, we are stuck with her for life.

A december cruise! You will get to see the ship all decked out for Christmas, I bet it will be lovely.

 

[OhMari]

I was about to ask if the boat moved much too, glad that it didn't!

Wow that was a lot of info to read through, sounds like there was lots to do and I love the idea of the animation class

I have the worst stomache ever, and the rockin did not affect me at all. My girls to some seasickness pills, and it made them more sleepy than anything. They stopped taking them, and we were all fine.

I don't know if the Disney ship is the same as RCCL, but the big theater was down on deck 3, and it was sort of fun, rockin, while watching the shows.

 

[Mysteria]

I have the worst stomache ever, and the rockin did not affect me at all. My girls to some seasickness pills, and it made them more sleepy than anything. They stopped taking them, and we were all fine.

I don't know if the Disney ship is the same as RCCL, but the big theater was down on deck 3, and it was sort of fun, rockin, while watching the shows.

More than happy to hear of another person with motion/stomach issues that was fine on a cruise.

 

[FauntleroyFAN07]

REALLY GOOD pics on the drive, if you like wineries, go just over the border in MI, and hit up traverse city MI, they have like 30 some plus wineries, you would like it.