Tree trimming in the park

I had mentioned a couple of months ago that the palm trees in our park were to get trimmed during the summer. We've been seeing information online about the progress (or lack thereof) of the trimming, and it is still going on since we've returned. 

We went out one evening to get pictures of the before and after look of the trees... these are two that have not yet been trimmed...

... some more that have not yet been trimmed.

Here are some that have been trimmed -- they look like they have been scalped and are just matchsticks...

A few tall and a couple of short ones that have already been trimmed.

We don't know whether the new company that they hired to do the trimming is doing them more aggressively or whether the trees will look more "normal" by October/November when we would normally return to the park.

"Rounder" party at Venture Out

Our friends, Don and Linda, who live in Venture Out year round, let us know that there was going to be a "Rounder" party on the Wednesday after we returned from our trip. Initially we thought we'd be gone to Dewey by then, but as time progressed we realized we'd probably need to do doctor appointments that would keep us in Mesa, so we asked them to get tickets for us.

The theme was "It's hot!" with the decorations...

... and many people's attire supporting the theme in yellows, oranges, and reds.

We didn't get the memo on colors to wear, but I dutifully was fanning my face while we got our pictures taken at the photo backdrop.

They served KFC chicken, rolls, potato salad, and watermelon, with root beer floats for dessert.

We enjoyed getting together with this group of folks who live in Venture Out year-round (i.e. "Rounders"). Our understanding is that about 20-30% of the park's population lives here year-round.

Moving and "Yes, it's hot!"

Since we've decided to stay in Mesa for the remainder of the summer and through the winter season, and since it is pretty warm here, we decided that we should move into the park model as it should be easier to cool and more comfortable than Gracie.

We did most of the moving using the golf cart...

... and yes, it is hot -- the time on the display is not correct, it was actually about 2:30pm when Carl took this picture.

Carl watched the local news yesterday morning to get the weather forecast. The weather reporter said, "Another 115 degree day today, but relief is coming on Sunday when it will cool down to 106. Next week it will be mild and the temperatures will be in the low 100's".

Hmmm... welcome to "the valley" in Arizona in the summer!

And, did we *have* to pick the warmest day to do the most of our moving? 

Staying in Mesa

Our original plans were to return to Mesa, pack up Gracie, and move to Dewey, near Prescott, for two months to wait out the hot part of the summer in a higher elevation with a hope for cooler weather.

Unfortunately, just before we left for our London visit / Solar Eclipse cruise, Carl started experiencing back/arm pain that he thinks is associated with an impinged nerve in his back. He was able to control the pain much of the time with ibuprofen or acetaminophen, but there were many times that the pain was pretty severe and impacted his ability to fully enjoy all that he wanted to do. We decided that he should try to see a doctor when we got back to Mesa and we were able to get an appointment scheduled for the Monday after we arrived back.

The doctor wanted him to get an MRI (which we were able to get done on Monday), see an orthopedist and a spine surgeon, and get physical therapy. To be able to get all these doctor/therapy appointments accomplished, we've made the decision to stay in Mesa, which will probably mean that we will be staying here in the valley through the rest of the summer and into the winter season.

We're bummed that we'll be missing out on our plan to visit the Prescott area. But we're grateful that we have friends here in Mesa that we'll be able to enjoy time with before the busy-ness of the season, and that we have the "new" park model house that we can move into that has better insulation and whose air conditioning should be more effective in this heat than the RV is. We're also grateful that, since a lot of people leave this area in the summer, it is a little easier to get in to see doctors than it would be during the winter season.

Saturday - flying home

Our flight was to leave Heathrow at 11am, and we had been told to check in 3 hours before that (8am). We could have taken the passageway back to Terminal 4, found the Elizabeth line train and taken it to Terminal 3, and then find the American Airlines departures area at Terminal 3. However, there was information at the hotel front desk about a "Hoppa Bus" that would take us to Terminal 3, so we decided to do that. The information indicated it was about a 30 minute ride from the hotel to the terminal, so we decided to try to catch the Hoppa Bus at 7:14am. The hotel provided us with a free breakfast buffet, so we headed down there at a little after 6am.

Sun rise over Heathrow from our hotel room at about 5:30am

We finished packing up our suitcases and were waiting with our luggage outside the hotel by 7am.

Another view of the cylinder that we used to walk from Terminal 4 departures area to our hotel -- it was actually pretty easy, even though we had had to deal with the challenging luggage trolleys and elevators going up to the Departures and then down into the hotel.

The Hoppa Hotel bus was late arriving (about 7:25 instead of 7:14am) and then stopped at several additional hotels before heading to Terminal 3. The traffic around Heathrow was horrendous at that time on a Saturday morning, but we eventually got to the American Airlines check in counter a little after 8am. We got checked in for our flight and headed to security.

I had read that Heathrow had state-of-the-art CT scanning machines so you didn't have to take anything out of your baggage. What they didn't tell you was, if the scan cannot figure out what is in your bag that may be a concern, it gets sent off in a different path where a security guy needs to open it and figure out what the scan had a concern with, and then examine it more closely (wand it with a detector for explosives, open liquids to make sure they are what they are labeled) to determine if they need to be refused for passage. We had 4 bins of items that went through the scanner, and 3 were kicked off for additional scrutiny (one of the kicked-off bins only contained Carl's wallet and passport!). Many other passengers were also waiting for the security guy to go through their bags. One young lady in front of us had all of her toiletries taken out of her bag and checked for explosives -- the security guy worked on her bag for about 10-15 minutes, it seemed. The American Airlines check in person had specifically asked if we had any powder in our hand luggage, and we said "no", but maybe she had some powdery substance.

This guy who was working at our security line was *very* methodical and *very* slow. He was starting to work with another passenger after the lady with the toiletries was done ("done" means she had gotten her suitcase and all her toiletries back and had to carry them over to another area to get them re-packed and then leave), when another security lady came up and wanted to start on one of our bins -- Carl went to work with her, and she processed whatever had been flagged on all three of our bins in about a minute. We knew we had plenty of time, so weren't concerned, other than wondering if they would end up telling us that something couldn't go in hand luggage and we'd need to either discard it or try to check another bag. As it turned out, there were no issues, just the delay.

When you get beyond security at Heathrow, you don't know which gate your flight will be leaving from, so you wait in this large area with all the other passengers (who have also gotten there 3 hours early) waiting for the gate for your flight to be displayed.

This is the flight display board -- it indicated that our gate should be listed at 9:30am.

Inside this area where you wait to get your gate assignment, there is a mall-type area with lots and lots of stores where you can purchase last minute souvenirs, or duty free items, or travel items, or food... or almost anything you can imagine!

The area where we were sitting

Looking the other way as we started making our way to our assigned gate

Although there were a lot of people there, and it could have been chaotic, it wasn't too bad.

When we got to our gate, there was an automatic cleaner trying to clean the area where we were sitting... there were a few guys standing in front of the seats a little down from us, and it kept on coming up to them and saying, "Please step aside," but they didn't...

... so it cleaned the area in front of us over and over again, I guess hoping they might leave.

Our flight information at the gate.

Once we got to our seats, information displayed about our flight on the seatback display

We flew over the southern part of Greenland where we had cruised just a couple of weeks before... Our flight had gotten to that point in just 3 hours and 21 minutes!

Halfway through our flight, we were just coming over the northern part of Quebec.

We got in to Phoenix a little early, went through immigration, collected our luggage and went through the customs area (we weren't selected for further inspection), and then had a *very* long walk to get to Terminal 4 where we could meet up with our friend Linda who would be driving us and our luggage back to Mesa.

We got back into the motorhome, and then went out to get Miss Kitty from her cat-care person. We got Miss Kitty settled, unpacked, and were ready for bed by soon after 7pm (which was 3am London time Sunday, where we had gotten up at 5am Saturday). We were tuckered! 

We thoroughly enjoyed our trip, but it sure is good to be home!

Friday, end of our cruise

Friday was the end of our cruise, and we were sad to disembark, but also looking forward to getting home.

A ferry was coming into Dover as we docked at the cruise terminal pier.

White cliffs of Dover

We had arranged to take Holland America's bus transfer from the ship to Heathrow Airport, as we were booked to stay one night at a hotel at Heathrow before our flight on Saturday to Phoenix.

While eating our last breakfast at the Lido Buffett, a display told us approximate times that different folks would be called to leave the ship -- we had been assigned "Lime 1" (and been given luggage tags to put on the luggage placed outside in the hallway), and the display showed that our disembarkation time would be 9:30am.

We went back to our room to await the announcement that it was time for "Lime 1" to disembark the ship. The TV screen in our room displaying the bow camera showed a pretty view out the front of the ship.

"Lime 1" was called and we left the ship about 9am, collected our luggage in the cruise terminal, and found our bus outside the terminal. After a very long bus ride - 3+ hours, we got to our hotel. Most of the drive moved along very smoothly, but the bus was in heavy traffic for about the last 30 miles and then we drove around Heathrow dropping passengers off at terminals 5 and 3 before we got to our drop off at terminal 4. We had arranged to stay at the Holiday Inn Express Heathrow Terminal 4. When we got off the bus, there was a single lady also getting her luggage and mentioned that she needed to find her way to her hotel. It turned out she was also going to the Holiday Inn Express, so we joined together to get trolleys for our luggage, wrangle the luggage trolleys that had a mind of their own on which way to go, find the passageway from the Terminal 4 Departures area to the hotels, find the Holiday Inn Express, then, after checking in, transfer our luggage from the trolleys to a luggage cart that we then used to carry all our luggage to our rooms.

From our room, we could see terminals and runways of Heathrow Airport.

Also from our room, we could see the passageway we used to get from terminal 4 departures to the Holiday Inn Express -- it is that cylindrical thing that looks kinda like the tubes that banks used to use to transfer materials from the outer drive-through lanes to the service people inside the bank! The square tunnel led from the cylinder to the Holiday Inn Express.

We got a light dinner in the hotel and went to bed early as we needed to get to the airport early in the morning.

Thursday - Day 28 - Sea Day

Thursday was our last day of the cruise, and a sea day - a leisurely day to enjoy the ship and all it offers.

After breakfast, we joined "Coffee with Jai" during which he interviewed a few of the Nieuw Statendam team members. We learned about different jobs on the ship, the backgrounds of a few of the crew members, and why they have chosen to live and work on a ship.

Jai then went over to the World Stage where he presented "A City at Sea" - telling us about all parts of the ship that make this city at sea work.

They presented many "gee whiz" numbers -- here the head chef was sharing that 90 pallets of food are loaded at the beginning of the cruise, and just 2 pallets of waste remain by the end. (I think that the 90 pallets would be for a 7 day cruise, because the presentation was a pre-created thing done on each cruise, and I doubt they customize for each cruise length.)

Captain Timmers shared some about his and his team's responsibilities. The audience was eager to applaud him for all he did to allow us to see the solar eclipse.

At the end, Jai invited many other team members to come into the stage area -- along with pictures of many more on the screens.

The team members were filling the stage and the aisles and we were all standing and applauding.

When we were at lunch, members of the food and beverage staff came through the Lido Buffet singing -- we joined in clapping and waving our napkins over our heads: https://youtu.be/J-RkOhx0XSQ

When we went through the pool area earlier in the morning, we had seen many towel animals -- we returned to enjoy the "zoo" on our re-christened "Zoordam".

Pictures of many of the towel animals combined into a video: https://youtu.be/wJjxlLQhb0E

We ended the day getting most of our things packed up to have our suitcases out in the hallway by midnight.