First impressions of cruising:

1) Wow this is easy! The arrival was seamless.  The porters, parking, efficient check in, and quick customs were a great “Welcome Aboard!”  The airlines need to start learning from the cruise lines.

2) How many other people are on this ship?

(See the Majesty of the Seas left with a total of  2700 cruisers plus 800 crew)

3) Who is driving this monstrosity?

(I found him. Believe it or not this Captain lives in my neighborhood. I went all the way to the Caribbean and could have bumped into him in the supermarket!)

4) Uh, why haven’t I cruised before?

(Still baffles me that I have lived in one of the cruising capitols of the world for over 6 years without cruising until this summer.)

Tips for first time cruisers:

1) Get to the port early to enjoy and check out the ship before departure. There is always a restaurant and bar open. Getting the “lay of the land” is crucial to enjoying the rest of the time aboard.

2) Plan your land excursions early. Most of the popular activities sell out. For Caribbean cruises make sure to get your snorkel, SCUBA, and kayaking reserved prior to the departure week or as soon as you board.

3) Get your deck chairs for departure early.

4) Don’t miss the opportunity to walk the deck to see the stars and moon. For those of us living in the city or around too many lights, this is an epic display of what we miss nightly for the other conveniences of metropolitan life.

5) Even if you aren’t an early bird, do get up one morning for sunrise. Not much beats a sunrise at sea. You can always take a nap in your cabin or on a deck chair later.

You don’t have to be in Mexico to take a siesta.

What I will do next time:

1) Explore a longer cruise 3 days was not nearly long enough. You crave more.

2) Going with a larger group to celebrate a birthday, success, life, etc. It was amazing the amounts of bachelorette, milestone birthdays, and reunions that were going on. It appears to be the best way to make a group gathering easy, fun, and a crowd pleaser from the adventureros, spa goers, barflies, and shoppers.

3) Pack less.  You don’t have the restrictions like the airplanes, but if you want to walk in and out of your cabin, closet, bathroom, etc. I would suggest you pack lightly to assist in getting used to the not quite full size bed, not quite full size stand up shower, and the like.

If you have tips from your cruising experiences, please comment on this post. I’m looking forward to sharing more good times and good stories with you of my summer of being a mermaid.

With the vast majority of Wisconsinites either of German or Norwegian decent, there is seldom a special occasion, festival, or holiday that doesn’t honor delicacies from those mother cultures. Thus, my family took me on an adventure to the basement of a community church in our neighboring town, where the local Norwegian women were in charge of cooking and serving a lutefisk (looooooot-a-fisk) and lefse (lef-sa) dinner. (My accent comes back quickly.)

Lutefisk is a traditional Nordic fish dish made of dried stockfish then soaked in lye.  Yes, you read that correctly, fish soaked in lye, the same stuff that you use to make soap.  I can only rationalize that the process has been passed along since the time before modern day refrigerators or ice boxes existed. However, the traditional taste, texture (jelly-like), and smell of the dish have continued; be forewarned, lutefisk is somewhat notorious for its intense offensive odor. Uffda!

Lutefisk is usually served with, but not limited to potatoes, gravy, melted butter, meatballs, and of course lefse. Unlike lutefisk, lefse is really easy to understand. Basically, it is the Norwegian version of a flour or corn tortilla; however, it is made from potatoes.  It is most commonly served with butter, but many prefer lefse with a sprinkle of sugar. As an addition, lefse is easy to eat and has been a staple in special shipments from Wisconsin for years to wherever I hang my hat.

Now, little did I know that this adventure would be my first appearance in the press. Yes, the local newspaper caught me in the act. Young with a skeptical palate and the overly fishy smell wafting through the hall, I was caught with an ear to ear grin of enjoyment of my lumberjack’s plateful of mashed potatoes and gravy. (Even to this day, I cannot pass up a plate of good mashed potatoes.)

So, on this trip back to my roots, will I be diving into a lutefisk and lefse dinner? Uffda!

**Photo from Official Lutefisk Chef Site

I left Florida in September on a short trip planned to the Hudson River Valley, New York with only one carry on. My week trip turned into four months of recovering and resulted in filling four large suitcases and that same carry on for my return home. Typically, I am a light traveler, but this time I was not moving or sightseeing, but limited because of my injury; thus, I turned to my natural instincts to, “pack like a rat,” everything from DVDs, magazines, books, clothes, and the like.

During my time away from home, I missed people the most, but in this story I would like to mention , in particular, the things I missed: the ability to hang up my clothes in a closet instead of piling them on a chair and on my suitcase, knowing the ins and outs of my own tv and cable remotes, having a junk drawer for things you just don’t know what to do with yet, adjusting the water temperature to just right in the shower, the taste of a my particular brand of coffee, and the smell of my laundry detergent.  Yes, many of these things may seem rather trivial but my trip was not a chosen hiatus, but a short trip turned very long via, “an act of nature.”  (If you would like to read about my accident click here)

Regardless of the circumstances that extended my stay, I bet that many avid adventureros and even business travelers can attest that the number ONE missed item when traveling for long periods of time is………

Your BED.

Despite the newer sleep number beds, decorative throw pillows, turn down service or no, there is no substitute to your own bed and pillow whether you like it with one sheet, two sheets, comforter, quilt, throw blanket, or more or even less.

I have just recently returned to my bed; “Oh how I missed you.”  I will not include a picture because I have chosen not to make my bed today. And, I can do that because it is my bed. The pillow is just right, not too big, not too flat.  The mattress is also just right, not too soft, not too firm. I almost feel like I am recounting Goldilocks and the Three Bears, but my bed is just right for me.  Now, bear in mind that I have been known to sleep very well on docks in Southern Spain, boats transversing the seas between Turkey and Greece, every transaltantic flight possible, and even camping in the Rockies or the Sahara.  However, a night’s sleep is never as sweet as in your own bed.

For those traveling and reading this, I leave you with, “sleep tight don’t let the bed bugs bite.” For those that are home, “sweet dreams.”  I will be enjoying my bed tonight, tomorrow night, and the next.  I will let my suitcases rest for awhile; thus, I will unpack later.

How fitting that I introduce my Ms Traveling Pants blog and myself as I sit on my way to London with laptop on the tray table with hopes of a bearable in-flight movie on yet another journey in my adventures of both near and far. So that you have further insight into who I am and why I write the way I do, please let me tell you a little story about my beginning…….where everything started?

Believe it or not, I am from a small, unincorporated town in Wisconsin called Centerville. Located on the Mississippi side of Wisconsin, I grew up in very rural setting on a hobby farm. You may say, what is a hobby farm? Well, amongst various neighbors that made their living by raising cattle or milking dairy cows, my family had a farm as a hobby. When I think of it, I don’t believe that would rank high on my chosen pastimes, but my parents did. My father a college professor and my mother at that time an antique dealer and inspired Shepherd, decided that a 20 acre farm with sheep, a couple of dogs, and cats nestled in a quaint valley surrounded by apple orchards, corn fields, and wild pastures would be an ideal place to raise a child. That is where I come in. I might say that it was a great place, safe place, and my place to grow up OR at least until I grew out of that stage.

My parents did not know whether I would be a boy or a girl so they thought Heath Claude if I were to be a boy or Heidi after the novel if I were I girl. Knowing how kids and teenagers can be ruthless with names, I am very happy that luck was with me that day, as I am Heidi. How fitting that my parents would have a herd of sheep and a little girl named Heidi.

As an only child, you tend to explore your world with imaginary friends, pets, and in a fantasy world. My stories and playtimes always were in fantastic far off places. It only seems fit that I too would be going places far far away to explore other cultures, music, food, fun, and most importantly people.

Around the age of 9 or 10, I took my first trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. It was for my father’s Spring break vacation from the university, but this was just one of many seasonal getaways that have shaped me into who I am today and who I will become. There I was a kid from Wisconsin seeing the powerful ocean and experiencing warm weather in the middle of winter, both unfamiliar surroundings.  On top of those items, it was in another language! However, I loved it and I was sold. It was there that I began my thirst of language with simple flashcards in Spanish and later expanded through school with pen pals, telenovelas/soap operas, and further exploration of Mexico…that is until I went to college and was encouraged to study abroad…Ok no one needed to encourage this young traveling bug to explore her horizons.

At the age of 20, I packed two large duffle bags with peanut butter, enough tampons for a year, and all the things I thought I could not live without as I shipped out for Madrid, Spain. It is crazy to think I packed such things….there are many better things to eat than peanut butter in Spain AND they did and continue to sell tampons there.

So sorry to interrupt, but the laptop battery is saying save or lose everything; plus, I am beginning to smell the oh so familiar chicken or beef lasagna dinner cart coming my way…..mmmmmmmmmmm buen provecho Heidi!