Pappa Hardy’s Musings on Life.

I watched the Golden Princess brought into berth at the end of our cruise and that brought back a memory from a Star Trek movie called “The Wrath of Kahn”. A cruise ship like the Golden Princess, which can have 3,000 passengers and 1,100 crew members is huge. It is so huge that the Golden Princess cannot be taken through the Panama Canal.

As you might guess, turning or parking a ship like this is not like parallel parking your car. You don’t turn it on a dime. They gently brought it to a stop and then backed into the berth because they couldn’t turn the corner on a dime. I listened to the Captain talk about using pilots when coming into port, and while the pilot may know the local waters the Captain still is responsible for boarding the ship and whatever accident or problem could occur while he is in charge.

As I watched them bring the ship to berth, I looked into the bridge from my spot topside on the ship and saw the Captain intently watching the procedure. It brought back to me the look on Captain Kirk’s face when upon taking the Star Ship Enterprise out of space dock, Spock turned to Ensign Savik and said, “take her out Savik”. The Golden is big to, and I am sure the Captain was as equally concerned.

One of the few things that I didn’t get to do on this last trip to Mexico was para-gliding. That is where they pull you behind a speed boat and you become, such as it might be, a human kite. That looks like so much fun to be sailing high above the water, master of everything that you see. Sometime in the future, I hope to have lost enough weight to qualify to do it, then have the guts to pay the money and go be a human kite.

The other two things that I would have liked to do was to go scuba diving (not qualified and certified for that one) or go play with the dolphins (way to expensive). One thing that made me feel better about not doing either one of those in Cabo was the fact that they had a lot of people stung by jelly fish while we were in port. Still, there are a lot of things in life I would still like to do.

Going to a third world country like Mexico reminds you of how difficult earning a living can be. While in Mazatlan, we saw everything from a cliff diver risking his life several times a day, beggars on the street, street vendors assailing you at every turn, trying to sell you anything and everything, and tour guides.

This was an interesting experience. As a nation seems to become more developed, there is less of this going on. The cliff divers were incredible and I enjoyed the tour guides. It was harder dealing with the beggars and street beggers, because you only have so much time and money, and I am on vacation and would like to not have to deal with all of that so much. In any event, people will do anything to make a buck.

Well, finally I get to be around when they divide or realign a stake, when I am and older guy and can remember what happens. The stake here is going to be divided, since we have been growing so quickly and as a result, we are going to have 3 stakes made into 4. They have said that no boundaries of wards will change, but the number and type of units in our stake will change. We are going to pick up the single’s ward, and maybe a couple of wards from one of the other stakes, and then loose a whole lot of wards.

This should be really interesting to watch. I won’t be involved in anything of course, but it will be interesting to watch none the less. I will report on May 18 when all shall be revealed.

Normally, on the cruises I have taken their is only one cruise ship in port. It is normally your own cruise ship. Of course, my experience in this regard is really limited, but in Mazatlan, Mexico, we had what the locals called Cruise ship day. This is a big thing for the city because on that day, there is a significant possible infusion of cash into the local economy from the tourists that are in town. We had three ships in port. They were the Golden Princess and Dawn Princess from the Princess cruises, and Vision of the Seas from Royal Caribbean.

That is a lot of foreign tourists in the town, and that means a lot of people that might be buying their stuff. The street vendors and the shop owners are relentless in trying to get you in their shop to buy their wares. For me, it was just cool to see three cruise ships in one place. I love the site of the big ships. It is a fascinating experience to see the ships. To the locals, it is the opportunity to make more money to support their families.

We are facing an interesting story right now as a nation. We have rising fuel prices, rising food prices, and the economy is in the tanks. We also have a housing market that is in the tanks. I think we are facing some fundamental shifts in the economy that could forever change the way we live in this country. I think we had better be prepared.

When I am in a very public Place like an airport I see a lot of different people. There are skinny people, large people, whites, black, bald, etc. I look at them and wonder, what is their story and What events have brought them to this place in time and space.

Are they married, single, divorced, LDS, Bhuddist, are they healthy or terminally ill? Most importantly, are they happy with their lives? Everyone has a story. I Have often thought it would be fun to figure that all out and then write a book about it.

Bonnie and I have been back almost a week from the experience of a lifetime. I refer of course to taking a cruise. We had always been told just how fun it was going to be and we weren’t disappointed.

We got to eat a lot of good food, anytime that we wanted to go and get it. We got to go see some pretty decent entertainment, just about anytime we wanted to go and see it.

We got to go ashore and see a new country, that we had visited once before. We weren’t disappointed and I was very impressed with what I saw of Mexico.

We got travel the open seas. We had the opportunity to look all around us and realize that as far as the eye could see, to the tip of the horizon, was water. There wasn’t a house, a tree, a rock, a gas station, for us to stop at and see. I realized just how prepared a ship must be when it sails the seas.

It was a fun and unique experience. I loved being there. I want to go again.

One of the problems of a cruise is the inevitable weight gain one experiences while on board. This is a particular problem if you are on a diet. We are eating whenever you turn around. There is an afternoon tea, tasting opportunities for all kinds of food, a 24-7 Buffet with very good food, etc. And so on. We also get to eat some very unique food like escargo, duck, and many luscious deserts. I probably will gain 20 pounds on this cruise.

This morning has been a reinforcement about how a cruise ship is a floating hotel. People are there to make up your room, to clean up after you, and they feed you fantastic food, waiting on you hand and foot morning, noon, and night. Then, when you make your tours, they keep your stuff for you and you just go do anything you want, any time you want, and you don’t have to move your luggage around. I think I like this kind of vacation more than any other that I have ever taken. I kind of wish I was a lot richer so I could go anytime I like. I am looking forward to a time in my life where I can just go and do whatever I want, whenever I like. It is great being on a cruise ship.