Thoughts on Chapter 8 - Cruises

"I've been the world over, know south, east, and west,
But the middle of nowhere's where I likes it best..."
-Great Big Sea, "Wave Over Wave"

So how would you like to take up permanent residence on a cruise ship? If you so happen to have around $1.5 million laying around somewhere, you can actually buy a condo on board a cruise ship and travel year-round. Wow. Talk about a way to spend retirement. Would any of you out there actually consider doing that, if money were not an issue?

Here's another nontraditional way to cruise... hop on board a freight ship and cruise along with the cargo! Yeah, it might not be as romantic as a luxury ocean liner, but you can visit some pretty out-of-the-way places that aren't as crammed with tourists as others. I'm not sure that would appeal to me, however. I like PRETTY boats! (er, ships.)

Man, I so need to go on one of these nautical vacations sometime. Even the ferry crossing from Ireland to Wales was one of the highlights of my last trip for me... well, there were many aspects that made that crossing magical, but it really made me want to be on a boat more often.

Well, that wraps up our chapter on cruises... tomorrow we talk about tours. Not QUITE as fun as cruises, but still fun!

Yay, new holiday!

Today, September 28, has been deemed Split An Infinitive Day. Feel free to happily split those suckers to your heart's content. But as liberating as it is to freely bend the "rules" of English grammar that we've been taught to strictly adhere to all throughout school, I'm wondering, is there any other way to creatively split an infinitive without having to only stick to adverbs?

Harvest Moon

I wanted to post something pretty and poetic about the fact that there's a harvest moon (full moon closest to the autumnal equinox) tonight, because "named" moons like blue moons and such always seem to have an air of foreboding or foreshadowing about them to me. But usually anything poetic or pretty that I try to write comes out as just cheese. So I'll just say it like this: Harvest moon tonight, guys. Cool, huh? And did you see that moon last night? Talk about bright, man. Almost like walking around in broad daylight.

Okay, I'm just SO ready for Halloween!!! Bring on the ghoulies and ghosties...

Wine, Wine, and Ghosts

Excursioned around St. Louis today with the fam, visiting some of my favorite St. Louis spots. The first stop was Montelle Winery which has arguably the prettiest view of any winery in the St. Louis area. I was trying to decide what other place the lush, green, rolling countryside reminded me of, until I finally admitted to myself, "well, maybe Missouri can be pretty on its own sometimes." Drank Cynthiana wine, which is pretty sweet.

Then we hopped over to Mount Pleasant Winery and heard some fun music and drank some good stuff. Really loved the Cabernet Savignon and the Norton there... would've bought some if it wasn't $25 a pop.

We left Mount Pleasant and after a brief traffic detour, (some of my family might be able to debate the word "brief" there) we made it to the Lemp Mansion for dinner (it's the most haunted house in St. Louis - perfect way to celebrate that October starts this week!!!). We happily chowed down on their family-style dinner they serve every Sunday. I'm tellin' ya, if you are reading this blog and you live in St. Louis and you've never had the Sunday feast at Lemp, seriously, you need to. I plan on making a trip back sometime in October to introduce some people who have never done it, so let me know if you are in. (Soon I need to blog about my "must-do's" for the month of October. Sunday at Lemp is definitely on the list.) When we first walked into Lemp today, I felt like I was visiting a friend's house, cause I've been there at least four or five times now, and the house seems to have a personality of its own (which can be a good or bad thing, I suppose). Walked around after dinner and saw that all the upstairs rooms were open, so we got to have a good look around. I was surprised, however, to see that the attic was being remodeled. Half of it looked like it was removed, and now there are doors that lead onto an outdoor patio of some sort. Huh. I wonder what the "residents" think of that. But anyways. Still a creepy place and I still refuse to go anywhere in the house alone, but when I'm with good company, I love it there. I'll definitely be back soon.

Happy day, but now it's time for happy sleep...

Navigation Bar

You'll notice I learned how to put my own links in my sidebar finally! Now I'm starting to have some real fun here. :) Ok, I've been sitting here in my cube at work, on a Saturday, working on these links (don't worry, I finished my work and I'm off the clock... not getting paid for blogging) going on less than four hours of sleep, and I have family in town that I need to go see... but first I must tear myself away... I've become the Mad Linker! WHAT HAVE ALL OF YOU DONE TO ME?!? :)

Why Spellcheck Cannot Always Be Trusted

I just received this in an e-mail, but I've seen it before. Cracks me up. Read it aloud if it doesn't make sense at first. (By the way, it's a link. Apparently people are having trouble reading links on my blog.)

Ladle Rat Rotten Hut

"Oh, yeah, I've, like, TOTALLY been there..."

I can really annoy myself sometimes...

We never did talk about cruises. Instead, we had to finish up the chapter on accommodations, and the teacher mentioned youth hostels. "Has anyone ever stayed in a youth hostel?"
Of course, my hand went up.
"Really? Where?"
"Ireland." I hope I didn't sound TOO smug.
"Wonderful! Ok, class, let's go to this international youth hostel website, and look at some hostels... oh, we'll pick Dublin since we're on the subject..."
I saw a familiar name on the list. "Litton Lane Hostel! I stayed there!"
"Really? How was it?"

And he clicked the link and the whole class was looking at pictures of it online, and I was telling them all about it. Before long I had gotten out my postcards that were leftover in my backpack, which was the same pack I had used on my trip, and the teacher passed them around the room. It was kind of embarrassing actually. "Oh, yeah, I just happen to have my postcards RIGHT HERE! Let me whoop 'em out for ya!" Sheesh...

But as embarrassing as this was, I still got some slight satisfaction that I have been somewhere my travel professor hasn't. Out of all his 20+ years working in travel, the poor guy never went to Ireland. Wow. I told him he should, like, TOTALLY go... :)

Setting a Course for the Open Seas

Ok, so here we go. I named my blog "Open Seas" to reflect my love for travel and how I am currently studying to enter the field someday, so that I can have a way more interesting job than what I have now! So I can share with you little tidbits that I learn here and there along the way. (For example, did you ever know where the word "spa" comes from? It's a Latin acronym for Solus Per Aqua, which means "health through water." Cool, huh? Yeah. Uh. Ok.)

Maybe in the future this can become my "travelblog," if I ever DO get a job with an awesome travel company and they send me on what are called "fam trips," or familiarization trips. Seems like this would be a much better method to update folks at home, rather than sending long emails, which is what I did during my last trip. If this makes it that far, of course!

More likely though, this will be a description of mind wanderings, rather than actual wanderings! So anyways... feel free to come aboard and see what's going on in my world... or what I choose to share of it anyway... mwahaha... :)

Tonight in class we're talking about cruises... sorta nice to be talking about crystal blue waters, floating resorts, and cocktails...in school. I'll try not to daydream too much! :)

Giving In

This is none of my doing! That pirate made me do it! I said I'd never... you'll never make me... I'll die before I... oh... oh well.