2016 Holiday Trip: The Cruise Ship

We boarded our cruise ship, the Carnival Miracle, on Christmas Eve Day. The kids and I sat outside and read The Polar Express together at the terminal, right next to our boat, while we waited for J to return our rental car. It seemed strange to have such a sunny day and be reading about a visit to the North Pole, but the excitement in the book matched our excitement to embark on a voyage.

When we got into our stateroom, we made sure to hang up our stockings right away

Christmas Eve excitement in our stateroom!

Christmas morning! Santa left toys for the kids in the little bathroom of our stateroom! Santa brought some Pokemon cards and Harry Potter figurines for Sam, and a Magna Doodle for Lucy.

Christmas morning with a beautiful ocean view from our balcony

We had Christmas breakfast in the fancy Bacchus Dining Room

We also had Christmas dinner in the Bacchus Dining Room

 Christmas dinner!

We spent Christmas Day as a family, and we didn't send the kids to the play area that day. I think that we may have gone to see a family-friendly comedy show together, or perhaps that was one of the nights that we went to see the Hasbro Game Show. We tried to do a video chat with Calvin and the Smiths, but the internet connection was so poor that I could barely get enough of a signal to send out an email to them. The Smiths recorded the audio of the call, though, so I was glad to listen to that after we came home.

Probably one of my greatest triumphs on this trip was winning toys from two separate "claw machine" games. After many, many tries, I got Lucy a stuffed Poppy doll (the character from "Trolls"). I was then determined to also get a prize for Sam, and after many tries I succeeded in getting him a Minecraft "Creeper" toy. We swung by the ship's candy store to celebrate and wait for the Dr. Seuss parade.

Our stateroom balcony

Sometimes Lucy couldn't handle all of the excitement on the boat, and she fell asleep at dinner one evening

Some of my favorite moments on the ship were ones that I didn't capture in a photo. I loved running in the gym that is at the front of the ship, and and watching Cabo San Lucas get closer out of the gym windows as I "ran" on the water toward it. I also liked doing Zumba on the deck of the ship and getting to run on the outward track. I liked going to the comedy shows and musical performances, and I liked that J and I spent a date night at the art gallery (where we quietly guffawed at the terrible, ugly art on display). And, of course, I love that I didn't have to cook or do any dishes!

Jeremy loved sitting on our stateroom balcony and looking at the ocean. Sam loved playing games in the arcade, especially the Star Wars game where you can blow up the Death Star. Lucy loved going to the shows and "playing" in the arcade too (although she didn't seem aware that we never actually paid for the games she thought she was playing). Lucy also decided to potty train herself while we were on our trip, which added a few elements of surprise (including when she had an accident on the deck of the boat right after we boarded the ship for the very first time - and we didn't have our luggage!).

Dr. Seuss character breakfast!

Lucy loved the little towel animals that the guest services staff left for us

Lucy got a "Camp Ocean" shirt and bag on our last night on board. They both enjoyed playing in the kids area, and they often went there for an hour or two each day.

2016 Holiday Trip: California and LEGOLAND

Over the holidays, we had a chance to go on a cruise to Mexico. The port for our boat was in Long Beach, so we made plans to spend some time in California both before and after the trip. I thought I'd put all of the California pictures in one post and the cruise pictures in another post.

Our trip got off to a really rocky start. Our flight was delayed by five or six hours because of air traffic at LAX, and then when the plane arrived at LAX there still wasn't a runway available for us. Our plane didn't have enough fuel to keep circling in the air, so we had an emergency landing at the Ontario airport. The airport was closed (!) and airport workers had to come to open up the building and let us off of the plane. There wasn't a car rental company that was open at 3:00 am, and, because the airport was closed, we couldn't find a taxi to take us to a nearby hotel. It was miserable! We finally flagged down a motel van and convinced the driver to take us back to the motel.

As a result, our time with our California cousins got cut short, since we weren't able to meet up with them until the following day (after we got a few hours of sleep and finally found a rental car). We did get to see their home in Moorpark, visit the campus for N's work, and go out to dinner. They also gave Sam and Lucy some Christmas gifts (Lucy was asleep in the car, so she isn't pictured below).

After seeing our cousins in Moorpark, we drove south to see our friends the Manchaks in Irvine. We swung by 3338 Sawtelle Blvd on our was down the 405, and it was fun for me to see the area where I lived as a kid (even though our apartment building has been torn down).

JB and Meka took us to Crystal Cove State Park, which is near their home

Lucy and June were a cute pair of toddler buddies

Mexican food with the Manchaks! We love these guys so much. Sam took this pic for us

After the cruise (which I'll write about in another post), we came back to California for a few more days. We drove down to LEGOLAND and spent New Year's Eve and New Year's Day there. Sam and Lucy had a great time. I think it was a good fit for our family because the rides were small, the lines were comparatively short, and Lucy could do a lot of the activities. 

It rained really heavily on our first afternoon at LEGOLAND (and that's saying a lot if we are Seattleites!). The sidewalks weren't equipped with drains to carry so much water, so the puddles in the walkways were a few inches deep. We bought ponchos and opted for as many indoor activities as possible, and then decided to head back to the hotel and watch the New Year's Eve fireworks from there. 

We went into the Adventurer's Club to try and stay dry

The next day, New Year's Day, was perfectly sunny! It was like the rain never happened. I thought it was appropriate that we got to pose with Buddy by this rainbow when we entered the park.

Lucy's favorite ride was Mia's Riding Camp

Before we got on this rollercoaster, I offered to hold Sam's Lego mini figure (that he got by trading with one of the employees). As we were riding the rollercoaster, Sam was so concerned about losing his figurine that he shouted at full voice (while we were being jostled about), "Did you remember to zip up your pocket?!?" We both thought that this ride was a lot of fun.

Sam wanted his photo taken with every single Lego Star Wars figurine...

...and life-size Star Wars figure. Sam had the biggest grin when he saw this large Darth Vader!

Sam and J went to the Lego Mindstorms activity and built a little robot

Lucy loved the swinging ship ride!

We stayed at the LEGOLAND Hotel, which was perfect. Sam chose the "Adventure Theme" room, which had Egyptian-like Lego designs and characters that seemed reminiscent of Indiana Jones. It was great. This is the only "themed hotel" that J and I have ever visited, and we joked about how romantic it was for our anniversary celebration.

Probably my favorite thing about the LEGOLAND Hotel was the elevator, which had a disco ball and played music while the elevator was in motion. It was fun to dance to music with complete strangers for just a few seconds, before the doors open and people go their separate ways.

After spending our second day at LEGOLAND, we drove to San Diego and spent a few hours visiting my friend Josh (from graduate school) and his family. Then, the next day, on the morning of the 2nd (New Year's Day Observed), we went up to LA to meet up with our cousins (including the H cousins too). We moseyed around the top of the Walt Disney Concert Hall (a Frank Ghery building) and looked at the garden and sculpture up there.

From this outing with our cousins, we said goodbye to California and headed back to LAX. Luckily, we didn't deal with any delayed flights (or emergency landings) like on our previous flight, but we were underwhelmed with the Spirit airline (they charge extra money for everything!) and don't want to fly with them again.

Lucy's Lip Syncing

Lucy is really into lip syncing these days, especially when we ride in the car. It's hilarious, because she gets really into the music. Right now she mostly likes to listen to the soundtracks from Trolls and Frozen, but she also asks for other Broadway show tunes sometimes.

Lucy also likes me to tip the rear view mirror down, so that she can watch herself lip sync. It is really charming and funny to look into my rear view mirror and see her dramatic expressions. I've figured out a way to set up my phone while I drive, so that I can capture some of these especially dramatic moments in the backseat:

Pergolesi's "Stabat Mater"

This quarter in choir we are learning Pergolesi's "Stabat Mater" (the "Stabat Mater Dolorosa" opening  song). It is a gorgeous song and I love the ornaments that the voices include on this duet between a soprano and a countertenor (the first five minutes of this clip):



I think that this will be my favorite song that we learn this quarter.

Celebrities Project: Bing Crosby

It has been fun thinking about Bing Crosby and listening to Bing Crosby music over the past several weeks, especially since I associate him so closely with the holiday season. I also liked learning about how he was from Spokane and I hope to visit the Crosby home the next time I drive out that way. This childhood home has a very different look and aesthetic to the mid-century home that Bing owned in the Coachella Valley area of California!

Today is also an interesting day to start writing this post, since January 4th marks the 74th anniversary of when the Bing Crosby home at Toluca Lake caught fire, due to a dry Christmas tree. I'm glad that I packed my Christmas decorations away yesterday!

In order to understand Bing's life and career beginnings better, I decided to read Bing Crosby: Pocket Full of Dreams, 1903-1940 by Gary Giddins. Like so many of the autobiographies that I have read this year, this one also meandered to discuss the lives of the people who interacted with Bing. Luckily, though, these tangents were a lot less lengthy than the ones that I've encountered in other biographies. This book helped me to understand more about the importance of technology in Bing Crosby's life: he really was born at the the right time for a mellow baritone voice to become famous, due to the invention of the radio (airwaves favors lower, resonant voices), the microphone, and the rise of sound recording technology. If Bing Crosby were born at a different time, without these inventions, he and his voice might not have made a great impact on popular culture.

Bing had a very prolific career, so I chose to focus on a few key points of his career in music, radio, and film. It was fun to listen to his voice, because his low tones and bright, controlled whistling remind me of my Grandpa T. One song that I particularly enjoyed discovering was "Whistling in the Wildwood." The subject matter reminds me of J's Grandpa P, and I learned from my mother-in-law that Grandpa P also was a whistler too. So it's fun to listen to this song and think of two different grandpas at the same time:



I also had my kids listen (and dance!) to Bing Crosby's Jingle Bells duet with the Andrews Sisters. I showed Lucy a clip of Sam dancing to this music when he was her age, and she was inspired to dance around too. I was surprised to learn that Bing never really formed a friendship with the Andrews Sisters. They had a strictly professional relationship and wouldn't really communicate outside of the studio. This is surprising to me, since their duets are some of the most well known and commercial recordings from Bing's career!

One of the ways in which Bing became extremely popular was through his work as the radio host for the Kraft Music Hall show. These radio shows were written out verbatim, but Bing's delivery is very natural and casual. I decided to listen to one excerpt of the show, in which eighteen-year-old Donald O'Connor is the guest (especially after learning that Bing worked with Donald O'Connor when he was twelve years old, during the 1938 film Sing You Sinners).



Over the past few several I've seen a few films with Bing Crosby (High Society, The Country Girl, and Robin and the Seven Hoods), simply due to the other actors that I've been studying.  There still were many films to choose from, though, so this month I watched these Bing Crosby films:

• Going My Way (1944): I've seen his movie before, but I could remember much about it. I decided to rewatch it, though, because Bing won an Oscar for Best Actor. To be honest, though, I felt like the film was slow-going (and Barry Fitzgerald's jittery character wore on my nerves).
• Holiday Inn (1942): This is a fun film that also has some great comedic moments between Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire. It's fun to see Bing Crosby sing "White Christmas" in this holiday film, too. I think I enjoyed this film the most, next to Road to Morocco.
• Road to Hollywood: This documentary is a "bonus feature" on one of the DVDs that I own, but I never watched it before. The 1947 film purports to discuss the rise of Bing Crosby to fame in Hollywood, using a string of short subject films that Bing created in 1931. This compilation seems rather haphazard, though. It's rather boring, and the audio is very poor in the early films. I don't think I'll watch this again!
• Road to Morocco (1942): I had a hard time deciding which "Road" movie to choose, but this blog post ranked the series and said that they thought Road to Morocco was the best. I've seen it before, but it had been a long time. It was quite funny and enjoyable, and I loved tons ee Bing's comedic timing. (The biography I read emphasized that people who personally knew Bing felt like the "Road" series best captured his true persona.)  J even watched this film with me and laughed several times. My favorite line is when Bing and Bob Hope are walking through the desert, and Bop Hope ad libs, "This must be the place where the empty all of the old hour glasses."

I also have been really saddened by the recent news of Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher's deaths, so I specifically sought out video clips of Say One For Me (1959), in which Bing Crosby and Debbie Reynolds perform together:

This song The Secret of Christmas is a little hokey with Debbie Reynolds singing next to the television screen projecting Bing's image, but it is still cute to see them singing "together":

I also was able to learn a little bit about Bing Crosby's connection to art history, which I covered on my art history blog, not only with his art collecting but also his Stagecoach portrait by Norman Rockwell. I feel more connected with him, knowing that he was interested not only in art, but also in reading. He was well spoken and intelligent. I also admire that he was a hard worker: he liked to fill his daily schedule and make sure that he was on time (if not early!) to his appointments. I can relate to having or desiring those traits!

Because I got behind on this project, I wasn't able to learn about Billie Holiday or Frank Sinatra before 2016 ended. I hope to learn about them sometime this year, but I don't think that I'll undertake a similar project for 2017. I'm ready to stop readying biographies and enjoy some fiction! My only goal for 2017 this far is to finish up my celebrities project at some point. I'm drowning in books that I've put aside for this project, and it will be nice to read some of them this coming year.

Bing Crosby Facts and Statistics

As I've been learning about Bing Crosby, I've been reading Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams - The Early Years 1903-1940 by Gary Giddins. Here are a couple of facts that I've learned:

• Bing Crosby received a classical Jesuit education at Gonzaga High School and Gonzaga University. He is the only major singer in American popular music to receive a classical education.
• Bing Crosby didn't know how to read music, but he had an amazing audiographic memory and could memorize and sing back anything that was played for him.
• "In a national poll conducted in the late 1940s, Crosby was voted the most admired man alive, ahead of Jackie Robinson, Generals Eisenhower and MacArthur, Harry Truman, Bob Hope, and the Pope." (Loc. 174-175, Kindle version).
• "He was the first full-time vocalist ever signed to an orchestra"(Loc. 209-213, Kindle version).
• "He made more studio recordings than any other singer in history (about 400 more than Sinatra)" (Loc. 209-213, Kindle version).
• "He made the most popular record ever, "White Christmas," the only single to make American pop charts twenty times, every year but one between 1942 and 1962" (Loc. 209-213, Kindle version).
• "He scored the most number one hits ever, thirty-eight, compared with twenty-four by the Beatles and eighteen by [Elvis] Presley" (Loc. 216, Kindle version).

Homeowner Woes and Garages

This past academic quarter has been very demanding for me, because I took on more work than I should have. Plus, things have been kind of crazy at home. Within the past two months or so, we have had three separate ant invasions (in different parts of the house), two incidences with mice in the home, a leaky roof, and a water leak in the basement. And there are some slightly unusual smells in the basement now, which may or may not be related to the problems stated above. Ugh. The new roof is supposed to be finished this week, and I hope things will calm down after that point!

We also will likely be getting our shed torn down sometime next year (due to a local construction project which will require us to sell part of our property). This means that we need to quickly build another shed or a full garage, so we will have a place to house our lawn mower and yard tools. I don't know when we will be able to afford a garage (it depends on how much money we get for our property that is being sold), but J and I are spending our free time mulling over garage options. We like this one by Garages Etc. Ideally, we would like something with a loft for storage (and J ideally would like to have a studio space). Plus, we also need something to fit with the aesthetic of our home. This prefabricated option is nice, although there are some practical space logistics which might prevent this model from being a viable option:

Sometimes I wish I could spend all of my savings on trips to Europe, instead of on home improvement projects. Maybe one day that will be the case, but I doubt it!