Star Princess

Day 10 (8/10/2010) Day 3 Baltic Sea Adventure

Courtyard at 1st Hotel in Copenhagen

Today we go to sea. After getting up this morning we debated about what to do for breakfast. There was a buffet downstairs in an enclosed courtyard restaurant but we were not sure what it would cost and if we would want to spend the money. We asked the cost, which was about $20.00, each American, and decided, in spite of it being more than we would normally spend on breakfast, to go for it. When we got there the host asked for our room number and informed us that it was included in the room. I would have been really disappointed if I would have found out later that we bought breakfast and there was not only a free one but a wonderful one included in the cost of our room. At breakfast we met a group from Minnesota that is going on the same cruise. We may share a cab to the ship but there are six of them and unless we get two I don’t see how that will work. Checkout is at noon.

We decided to get a cab on our own. Check in on the ship was mostly painless. If I would have known that we had to go through another security check I would sent all my stuff to the room ahead of time. They must hire the staff based on their ability to smile. Most have been quite nice but sometimes hard to understand. The only downer so far was finding out that internet access is not free and actually fairly expensive. I will have to limit my blog time and no skyping. The ship is beautiful and huge. We had opted for a mini suite with balcony mostly because by the time we really decided to go everything cheaper was gone. In the long run I think it is going to be great. Although windy we can sit on the balcony, sip wine and watch the world go past. We are still confused about many things but are starting to figure some things out like where we have to go to eat. I am sure tomorrow while we are at sea all day we will figure out a lot more.

Eileen on Deck

Our room for ten Days

Eileen on the Balcony

Star Alliance

Star Alliance

Day 9 (8/8/2010) Day 1 Baltic Sea Adventure

So far so good, except for the mandatory sleepless night, the night before, everything seems to be going smoothly. We got to the airport 3 hours early. We had taken off from Cedar Grove early because we really had no reason to stay home. We had everything ready and thought our time was better served stopping for breakfast and getting to the airport early in case of any unforeseen situations. It rained most of the way to Chicago but now it looks like the sun is coming out. According to the sign above the desk it looks like our flight to Stockholm is on time. The airport, at this point is quite quiet. I took a picture of the plane and noticed that the name of it is the “Star Alliance”, kind of sounds like something out Star Wars. Eileen pointed out that we have this Star theme going, our ship is the “Star Princess”.

Eileen at the Airport

We have been in the air now about an hour. Unlike our first trip to Scandinavia, everything is on schedule. The plane has a really cool interactive mapping system so you can watch where you are going. We are about to pass north of Toronto at 35000 feet. Our air speed is 624 mph and it is -54 degrees outside. You can also camera down to watch the ground or camera forward to see what the pilot must see. We are about to pass over the Madawaska Highlands. They are starting to serve food so for now I will take a break.

Dinner is served. For airplane food it was wonderful. We had the chicken which was quite tasty. Of course it came with a nice Chilean Carmenere which may have added to the overall lusciousness. There was also a nice roll, some brie and I am guessing a cheese cake which I am saving for later. We are currently following up the Hudson Bay and still have six hours to go to get to Stockholm. Then we will have to catch another flight to take us to Copenhagen. They are coming around with the coffee which smells delicious but I am going to have to pass and try to get some sleep. We still have a long trip ahead of us.

Airline Food

It is morning and we are passing over Norway. It is 11:30pm there but 6:30am here. They just passed out breakfast. After seven plus hours of sitting it was a little rough to handle. I did have some coffee though and that was good. Unfortunately as hard as I tried I couldn’t get any sleep. With our lack of sleep last night I am starting to look forward to a shower and a nice cozy bed. It will be nice to get off this plane and walk around a little even though we still have the short flight to Copenhagen and have to find our hotel. We have less than an hour left so we should be starting our descent soon.

Our first Hotel

We have landed and now sitting in Stockholm airport. Apparently they don’t believe in air conditioning because it is super hot and super humid. It is 8:30am now there time and the plane leaves at 10:00 so we will have some time to chilax.

Except for being dog tired, the next leg of the journey went well after we finally got a pilot. I am not sure what happened since most of the discussion was in Swedish, but apparently the pilot didn’t make it on time so we took off a little late. In spite of that we arrived a little early in Copenhagen. After getting our luggage and a taxi we made it to our hotel. To be honest as soon as we got in the room we cleaned up and took a nap.

It is hard to say were one day ends and the next starts when your life doesn’t stop and time is such a relative thing. I thought about starting a new day after our nap but decided I would just cram it in with day 1. Tomorrow I will try to get back on track when we indeed have days that have definition. After our nap we went for walk around Copenhagen. The first thing you notice is the bike traffic. Not only are there huge numbers of bicycles but huge varieties. There were an infinite number of baby carriers alone, everything from covered ones to haulers that could carry an entire family. Like most old European countries Copenhagen is an interesting mix of old and new architecture. There seems to be work going on everywhere. Copenhagen seems much more cosmopolitan than the cities in Norway. It has an interesting mix of cultures. Copenhagen has a amusement park right in the heart of their city center. If we had more time and money we probably would have gone mostly because of one ride that spins you in swing as raises over the city. Tomorrow it is off to the ship.

Billions of Bikes

Tivoli

Grain Silos converted to Apartment Buildings

Cool Reflections

Turf covered Car

Changes

Day 8 (7/21/10)

We finally got back out on the water. It has been a very busy summer. It doesn’t look like it is going to slow down anytime soon. Originally we had planned on an overnight camping trip. Unfortunately several things came up to make that impossible. We decided to go to Gerber just to get out and enjoy what promised to be a beautiful, but hot, day. Many things had changed since our last trip to Gerber almost a month ago. The first change we noticed since our last trip was that they have installed a box to pay for docking/parking. We had heard that Sheboygan County had started charging to use the bike trails but we had not heard about the docking fees. I imagine if people don’t want higher taxes they have to pay for parks and recreation somehow. I’m glad we brought money. It looks like you can get a yearly pass that will give you access to both trails and launch sites. Personally, it is not a hardship, but I do feel sorry for low income people who are being forced to pay to take their children fishing. It makes fishing for food even more costly. After paying our penance we unloaded our yaks and got to business. The second change we noticed was how weedy the lake was. It never was like this last year. My guess is that all the rain and heat has made for optimum conditions for weed growth. The one thing that didn’t change was that we saw little in the way of wildlife. It may have been the time of day that we went out but there were almost no shore birds. We saw a bunch of circling Turkey Vultures but that was about all. The third change was that the only house overlooking the lake is either being torn down or remodeled. I must admit it would be cool to have no houses on the lake but it was far enough away as to not really be obnoxious. Finally, the last change was that there were no people. Eileen and I had the lake entirely to ourselves. That made for a very relaxing afternoon. We were able to go wherever we wanted whenever we wanted. When we were packing up to leave a man and a boy put their boat in but otherwise nobody.

Tale of Two Hinghams

Day 7 (6/30/10)

All of Eileen and my favorite Kayaking areas are lakes with rivers that either run into or out of them. Most have slight differences between the lake and the river, obviously, but nowhere is it more pronounced then Hingham. The lake is kind of a dirty sometimes smelly little mill pond on the onion river. It is bordered on the east shore by huge ostentatious houses. Apparently if the Department of Natural Recourses had their way they would remove the dam and allow it to revert back to its original state which as I understand was a notable trout stream.The other side has little development other than a small business area and a couple of cabins. Once you make the last turn out of the lake it gradually changes into a clear stone bottomed stream. It becomes almost magically peaceful. Unfortunately you can only go so far before it narrows down to the point where you just can’t go any further. It is on the trip back where the change is most noticeable. As you come around the last left hand turn you are accosted by a huge behemoth of a house. At the same time you notice the water getting dirtier. It is almost a metaphor for human influence. We did have some fun on the lake though. First we spent quite a while chasing a blue heron around the lake. We could never get real close to it though. One of the more interesting observations we made in the lake was of a swirling orb of little black fish like animals. We are assuming they were tadpoles. We tried to get a picture or video of them with Eileen’s underwater camera but the wind was too strong to be able to get the kayak stationary enough. All in all it was great day. I almost wish we could get to the river without having to go through the lake.

Pudgies and Chipmunks

Day 6 (6/23&24/10)

It was time for our annual Mauthe Lake Camping trip or at least the first one. We are thinking about another one in July. We were a little concerned about rain. Every forecast we looked at looked worse than the last but finally we decided to go for it. When we got to the entrance station the National weather Service had the direst predictions, storms at 3:00 and showers the rest of the day. We had always wanted to try Mauthe’s Teepee so we decided with the prediction of storms this might be a good time to have two layers of cloth between us and the storm. Fortunately, it was not taken. We proceeded to set up camp with the idea that at some point we would be confined to barracks. After we got things set up we headed out for a short bike ride. We had already planned on not redoing last year’s debacle where we biked to Long Lake and then Kayaked the rest of the evening and couldn’t sleep because of sore muscles. The impending storms also meant we did not to push the limits too far. After our ride we carried the Kayaks down to the lake. One of the nice things about the Teepee is how close it is to the lake. It was quite windy as we headed for the Milwaukee River which runs into the North West side of the lake. We had been looking forward to going up the river all winter. The first time we had gone up we had spent a good deal of time photographing a baby deer eating lily pads. The last time we went up we were run off by a family making so much noise that even the dead were evacuating. The wind did not seem as much of a factor after had entered the river. It was much deeper than it had been last year so we were able to go quite a way farther. We actually saw little in the way of wildlife. We have been surprised this year by the lack of shore birds. It is still early so maybe they will come later. I hope so. We could have probably gone even farther but the clouds were starting to look ominous so we elected to head back. By the time we got back to camp it was looking less like rain and the wind was nearly gone and so I started casting from shore. After awhile we hauled my Kayak back down to shore and I went out and fished for awhile. Soon after going out I hooked into a nice Northern. While I was trying to get the hook out it gave one last effort and snapped the line. I tried a little longer but had no success. It was time for supper anyway. One gets new respect for our forefathers when your supper is dependent on a fire of soggy logs. After much tending, we finally got the fire going and started our supper of assorted pudgy pies. Pudgy pies, for those people out of the loop, are sandwiches made by stuffing almost anything between two slices of bread and grilling them over a fire with special campfire sandwich grillers. As we were finishing our entrée and about to start our dessert course it started raining. It was a gentle rain so we grilled right through it. By the time we finished it was starting to get dark so we called it a night. Unlike last year the night was uneventful and we were not visited by any wildlife. The next morning the fire started much easier. The first thing we did was to start a pot of coffee. As we drank our first pot we watched the chipmunks scurry around camp. They had little fear and were hilarious. After a second luscious pot of coffee (camp coffee is the best) and breakfast “Pudgies” we were off with the kayaks once again. It was still a little windy but a beautiful day to be out kayaking. We went back to the river and although nothing spectacular happened it was just wonderful to be out on the water. I had to be back at 3:00 so after a morning of exploring it was time to tear up camp and head for home.

After the Rain

Keeping it Fresh at Gerber

Day 5 (6/13/10)
We were hoping the sun would come out today. It has been raining off and on for several days. Although cloudy, the forecast is for scattered showers. Because of the possibility of rain and also the need of some supplies from Fleet Farm we decide to go back to Gerber. When we get there we are surprised to see that the lake has intruded into the turnaround area. It is the highest I have ever seen the water level and also the muddiest. Because of the cloudy water the fishing was also the worst I have seen it. That didn’t stop us from having fun. We knew that the river was going to be high so we went back there right away. In spite of how cloudy the lake was the river was crystal clear and the bottom had apparently been scoured clear by the high water. We saw lots of fish, most in the six to ten inch category. When we got to the bridge we decided to go under it in spite of the narrow passage due to the high water. We thought that maybe we would be able to go further downstream than ever before. Unfortunately, we were not able to get much further than before. When I was coming back under the bridge I happened to look over and saw a nest full of baby birds and I mean full. The parents were quite upset with our being there. There were few shorebirds for Eileen to photograph so she spent her time stalking flowers. There were irises and water lilies everywhere. It stayed cloudy all day but never did rain. Wednesday we are off to Hingham.

Baby birds

Angry Momma Bird

Where's Waldo?

Day 4 (6/6/10)

Today we went to Waldo Pond. It is one of our favorite close Kayaking areas. The pond itself is a little smelly but is still kind of interesting. I have been told there are Northern Pike in the pond but I have never seen or caught one. There is certainly enough food for them because there are suckers jumping everywhere. I have seen jump totally out of the water. Although the bottom is very muddy there are a lot of boulders both above the surface and below so you have to keep a close watch. It is once you get beyond the pond that it narrows down to the Onion River. This is where it gets really fun. In the past we have seen deer and beaver along with many birds of assorted shapes and sizes. Today however, we saw little in the way of wildlife. It was probably because of the weather. It was cool, windy and threatening rain. Fortunately the wind was coming from the North West which meant it was in our face going out. We learned early on that it is much better to start going against the wind. We have had a couple times where we went the other way and the trip back had been hell. Even though we have been at Waldo several times now it still offers us much to see and do.

River Monsters