Rose City Cruiser

Thanks everyone for your support!

Unfortunately, my date to rejoin a cruise ship for work has been postponed. I'm assuming it's because the CDC has still not confirmed cruising out of the US yet, and Royal are not ready for non-essential crew to return just yet.
 
 

They’d have to say something to mistrust it

This will be me after Covid! Who wants to join me?
 

Which cruise is more appealing for you guys this summer? Adventure sailing out of Nassau, or Vision sailing out of Bemuda?
 
Here's the latest update I have for you guys with regard to me going back to work.
 
 

Shows of hands:
Whose new favorite cruise port in the whole wide world is Nassau?

Equal number of doses of maple syrup.

The border to open I am sure...It’s killing the economies of towns along the border on both sides. Canada is so far behind in the Vaccine roll out. my 77 year old parents in Manitoba just got scheduled for the end of March. In Georgia we are doing 55 and older no restrictions and 16 and older with medical conditions (one of which is “overweight” so basically almost everyone qualifies today.

USA giving 1.5 million of the AZ vaccine to Canada
https://www.axios.com/vaccine-astrazeneca-us-doses-canada-mexico-45c3aea8-4995-4ceb-a6cd-fb64d819fa8b.html

We’ll take all the vaccines we can get since we aren’t producing any domestically 

You've got your 1M doses, now open the ports Canada !!!

Long story short, Canada isn’t producing the vaccine in house. We are dependent on other countries to supply it. The story goes downhill from there but that is not a story for these message boards. 😉

Yes, you can still get it. But, even in Canada, the vaccine prevents severe disease.  If it eliminates severe disease then it's a positive thing.  Even in Canada.

I haven't left the state of Florida since February 2020, but that's about to change as I'm taking my oldest daughter skiing for her first time.
As a kid, I'd go skiing all the time.  But I haven't gone skiing at all since I think high school, or maybe college. So it has been about two decades since the last time I hit the slopes.
Earlier this winter I had looked at going skiing up in Vermont, but quarantine rules make that kind of trip impossible.
Then, I saw a Facebook post from @AnnetteJackson's family of a ski mountain in the western hills of North Carolina and I knew I had a chance!


After doing some research, we're going to take the 10 hour drive up to Beech Mountain, which is outside the thriving metropolis of Boone, North Carolina (less than 2 hours from Asheville).
We're going to do a long weekend over President's Day weekend, since my daughter gets 1 day off of school and I convinced my wife to let me pull her out of school for one day before the weekend begins.
I managed to find a ski condo about 20 minutes from the mountain.  Rentals went very quickly in the days I took to decide what to do, but I think for us it will work quite well.


I also spent a lot of my credit card points on Amazon purchases for the necessary cold weather clothing we need.
I was also able to rent our equipment and get lift tickets via the Beech Mountain website.
The only thing left are lessons, which are available in person on a first-come, first-served basis on the day of the lesson. I guess we will be getting up early to lock in those.
My hope is my daughter will enjoy skiing as much as I did at her age, while also hoping I remember how to ski. It can't be that hard to remember how to do things, right?


Besides injuring myself in a classic case of "Matt, you're not 20 years old anymore", I'm also slightly concerned my daughter will find the cold and windy temperatures too much and want to stop.
Plan is to go after school next week and stop half way in South Carolina, and then get to the mountain the next day.
Basic approach should be:
Thursday: Start drive up Friday: Arrive at mountain. Check-in, get equipment, provisions, etc Saturday: Ski! Sunday: Ski! Monday: Drive home bright and early

She's back!

She's back!

She's back!

She's back!

She's back!

She's back!

Read on a news article some Canadians are receiving their vaccinations in FL.  Just as long as they are 65 or older.  

And the details starts to come, 
200 K people were tracked after the first dose against same number of people  which did not got the the vaccine yet. Until day 12 the number of people that were infected are more and less the same in the two groups , after day 13 there is a drastic drop of people that were infected from the first group (more than 40% and some number even shows 60%), this is a good indication that the vaccine will not just reduce the illness but also may reduce the risk for being infected.
Its just first number , we will need to wait to get more information . 

Just before final payment ... I always check this box off.  I am in awe of the people who can juggle multiple cruises and multiple FCCs.  I can not do it.  I book, cancel, repeat.
 
Curt from Canada

That's the 20-year plan 😎