Greetings from the South!
-
Yikes, @Steve-Miller those pics look cold!! Glad you're enjoying yourself!
-
Most of the crew is from NOLA where it hasn’t snowed since the 60’s. Many of them have never seen snow before and can’t stop staring at it!
-
Ha! Yesterday was the 40th anniversary of Chicago's lowest temperature.
Think it was cold Monday? It was nothing like the history-making temperatures on this date 40 years ago.
On January 20, 1985, the mercury bottomed out at a bone chilling -27 degrees and was accompanied by a brutally cold wind chill of – 57 degrees.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/monday-40th-anniversary-chicago-lowest-222547369.html
-
We were finally able to get off of the boat today. Bus tour of Baton Rouge -a lovely city. Good thing - the geezers were ready to mutiny.
Ended up at a casino that made everyone very happy. Tomorrow is New Orleans.
-
Don't miss the State museum in the French Quarter about the history of the Louisiana Purchase and of the founding of New Orleans if you can make it.
It's named after a Baroness who was associated with the building. Any local in the French Quarter can point you right to it.
-
@Steve-Miller Have fun in New Orleans! I love that city.
-
I believe that is one of the Viking boats? We cruised with them in Europe in 2023 and are doing Bucharest to Budapest this summer. I thought their service was top notch and we loved the whole experience! We haven’t considered a North American cruise with them though they do have a couple interesting itineraries on their Expedition ships!
-
Yes, Viking. Our first cruise on a smaller ship. I liked everything about it; Sharon would have preferred the big shows and such you get on the larger ships.
One advantage to the smaller ship was that we got to meet and chat with more people and got to know a few of the staff. The bartender in particular was outstanding - taught me how to make a Sazarac and a mint julep!
My favorite, though, was the sushi chef - a young and very enthusiastic guy who seems to love what he does. I’ve really never had sushi before and he seemed happy to answer all of my questions. He offered to make something special for me so I can try different types. It’s not in the menu but he took the time to make it for me.
He called a Bento Box - kind of a smorgasbord of sushi stuff. Just spectacular! I later found that they would make also tempura fried vegetables if you knew to ask for some.
Definitely a highlight of my trip!
-
Checking on line, it looks like a proper Bento Box requires a box.
Maybe what I had was actually a Bento?
-
@Steve-Miller that sounds very similar to our European experience. One day we had a Baba ghanoush appetizer at lunch and I mentioned it would be perfect to have in the evening on our veranda. When we were done lunch the server came back with two of the baba ghanoush servings wrapped up for us to put in our fridge to have later. Another time Rob was having a hard time choosing between two menu items so the server brought him both. We also found that information travelled quickly between servers. We made friends on the ship and two of us were drinking the same Riesling that wasn’t one of the standard wines on the menu. It didn’t matter which server we had, they knew which one we wanted. We also ran into the head of hospitality on the street in Cologne. She wasn’t in uniform and we hadn’t noticed her but she came over, addressed us by name, and just asked how we were enjoying the city and if there was anything she could direct us to. It was her day off and we wouldn’t have noticed it she had just walked by!
-
This is similar to the lunch I used to get at a little Japanese restaurant:
I used to call it a bento box. Maybe @ShiroKuro can confirm if that's the right name for it.
