Live From the Breeze – Day O

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Déjà vu all over again… all over again.

Ok… those of you that know me know I start out my day numbering system with “Day 0”. Since this isn’t a full day… just the afternoon and night… it’s not the first day. Of course those of you that really know me, know that the real reason is because I get all of you to start singing, “Day oh”. Sing it all together now… Day­ OH… Daaayyy yaay yaay yaay OH.

The heading isn’t a misprint or typo. It’s all over again on purpose. This is my fourth cruise on the Breeze and it feels like I’m doing it all over again. The first three times were with all or at least some of a group of funatics. I cruised with them on four cruises and went to Key West with them on a land trip. They aren’t here this time and I’ll miss them… but the ship still has the same feel… she’s kinda like ole home.

My "office" in the Red Frog Pub for the next few days.

My “office” in the Red Frog Pub for the next few days.

I’m coming to you right now from the Red Frog Pub… my office for the next six days. Now I know a lot of you will say, “Why on earth are you working on a cruise ship”. Well… you see, this isn’t working to me… is really my fun. I am always amused by the goings on when we are cruisin’. And I just like to share it with you.

Like today… there was a guy wearing flip-flops, florcescent multi-colored shorts and an orange & yellow tie-died t-shirt. He was dancin’ at the sail away and really gettin’ down. Now you’ve heard the sayin’, “Dance like no one is looking.” Well, he was. And he looked more like a goat trying to learn to skate on ice. But it didn’t matter… he was having fun and didn’t care a bit about all the little kids pointing at him. So… it’s this kind of stuff I watch and will share with ya’ll.

As always, I’ll be sharing the good, the bad, and the ugly with you. No one pays me to write… or not write… my opinion. Perhaps if they would bring me a wheelbarrow of money that could change. But that happened yet so what you get is my opinion. Of course, opinions are like noses… everyone has one. So I’ll get right to it.

I’m very pleased to tell you that in addition to the DJ, they have brought back live music on the Lido at sail-away. I think it may be the “dance band” that plays in some of the venues during the evening. They were pretty good. I still miss the Reggae or Caribbean band, but the live band is an improvement over having just the DJ.

I sure am glad I’m “platinum” now and get “VIP” boarding. The line outside the terminal was huge today. I suspect that people were in line for a couple of hours. The “VIP” boarding only took about 15 minutes to get through… we bypassed the long line and went right to the front to get through security. The reason I’m telling you this is because I’ve been asked several times if I think the FTTF (Faster To The Fun) “deal” is really worth it. FTTF gets you to the front of the line almost like platinum and diamond members. So, today it would have been well worth the bucks not to stand in that long line.

The sail-away party was another of those great first events on a cruise. This one may have been better than most… but I’ve had a lot of good ones so it’s hard to tell. There were people dancin’ on all decks over looking the Lido deck pool… all the way up to the water-park. Since this is the “last gasp” for summer for a lot of people, I think the party will be going strong.

Miami is my favorite port to sail from. It’s always really neat looking out from the top decks of the ship. Rather than try to describe it, I’ll post a few pics in a minute.

That’s all for now… I’ve got to go see if my bags have been found. They had the wrong tags on them so I hope that has been straightened out. Otherwise I’ll have to wear what I wore when boarding when I go to dinner tonight… flip-flops, florcescent multi-colored shorts and an orange & yellow tie-died t-shirt.

More later…

K. M.

The view from the top of the ship.

The view from the top of the ship.

My favorite port to sail from.

My favorite port to sail from.

Words don't do it justice.

Words don’t do it justice.

Jet Skis & Wave-runners playing in the bay

Jet Skis & Wave-runners playing in the bay

The very high rent district

The very high rent district

HPIM1863

 

South Beach... the ship passes right by.

South Beach… the ship passes right by.

 Next Post Day 0, Part 2

Ann-Margaret and me.

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As I was waking up this morning, I was having a dream. It was a dream about a time and a place that really wasn’t very nice. A place I left long ago, but somehow don’t seem to be able to completely forget. Usually when I dream of that place, I would rather not remember the dream… just let it go. But this time was different. It was of something I liked… of something that would put a smile on my face… of something that I like to remember.

As I laid there in that “never-never land” between sleep and awake I squeezed my eyes back shut. It was Dec ’68 again and I didn’t want the dream to end…

I was in a far off land at a little “garden spot” we called, “Naked Fanny”. We were all there doing our best to stop Uncle Ho from moving war supplies to the Cong in South Vietnam… supplies Uncle Ho wanted the Cong to use against our boys. It was Christmas time and Bob Hope came to our base. It was a secret base that wasn’t supposed to even exist. In one of his television specials Bob quipped, “We did our show at Nakhon Phanom for pilots, crew chiefs, and technicians… who don’t officially exist.”

Each year Bob Hope came to “Naked Fanny” and brought the troops a little piece of home during Christmas time. The show lasted for nearly two hours. It ended as always with the singing of Silent Night. For a little bit, it had been Christmas. But we all knew we had to get back to the business of war. There we were… hundreds of grown men… all with tears in our eyes.

After the show we were all hungry and headed for the Chow Hall… the Skyrader Inn. It was very crowded because after everybody left the show they headed over to eat before going back to work. It was hard to find a table and we had to sit wherever we could. As we were starting to chow-down, Bob hope and a few others walked in. I guess even star performers get hungry too. Everyone stood up and gave them another round of applause. Bob in his typical style took a swing with his golf club and acknowledged us. Then he got in line with everyone else to get some chow.

We were woofing down our food as fast as we could. We had to get back to work… the war was still raging and there was stuff to be done… we had to stop Uncle Ho. Then… I couldn’t believe it. Bob Hope came up to our table and asked, “Okay if we sit here?” There they were… Bob and Ann-Margaret… at my table! We had only two empty chairs. My jaw dropped and I stuttered out, “Shh… Shhh… Sure you can sit here.” Bob sat across from me and Ann-Margaret sat next to me. I was in love.

Ann-Margaret was the most beautiful woman I had ever been next to. Her stage make-up was gone and I think she was even more beautiful. I really didn’t know what to say. But she made me at ease. It turned out she also might have the friendliest woman I had ever met. I quit woofing down my chow. The war could wait for Ann-Margaret. We sat there for much too short of a time. She didn’t seem like a big time star any more… she was just like any girl from back home.

Someone from the Bob Hope troupe stepped into the chow-hall and announced, “Time to go… the plane is ready”. By that time I had forgotten all about where we were or what we were doing. For just a few minutes I was just back home, chatting up a beautiful girl… and there was no war. Ann-Margaret turned to me, kissed me on the cheek and said, “Gotta go… I’ll never forget you”.

With that, she was gone… I’ll never forget you Ann-Margaret…

Try as I might… I had to wake up and get on about the business of the day… people to see, places to go and things to do. Although Bob Hope is gone, millions of GIs like me will never forget him. We will never forget all of those that came to us at Christmas time. Whenever I think about the time Bob came to us for the visit, I always hum to myself… “Thanks for the mammaries ”. (No…  that’s not a typo… I meant mammaries.) Thanks Bob.

And thanks to Ann-Margaret for the fantasy filled moments you have given me. Oh what might have been.

Lots of red-blooded American men and the GIs of the time have fantasized about Ann-Margret the same way I have. What a lot of them didn’t know is what kind of a person she really is. During the time of her USO tours, she was married to Roger Smith. She is still married to him today and by all accounts, it has been a “fairy tale” love. Still, she entertained us like we were the only one in the world for her. She took her Christmas time to come to our little “garden spot” and I thank her for that. I truly will never forget her for that.

One other thing I should mention is that she has a special spot for us GIs of the era too… she always calls us her “gentlemen”. Her web page has a section on her time with the USO. Be sure to read the stuff at the bottom of the page. And… guys who were there… have some Kleenex ready. Here’s the link.

http://www.ann-margret.com/uso.html

P.S. I owe this story to a friend that also did time at “Naked Fanny”… Dan Bruhn. He was there from ’68 – ’69 too. An email from him reminded me of the Bob Hope show and of Ann-Margaret. Of course, he claimed that he was the one that ate lunch with Ann-Margaret way back during that Christmas time… maybe he did.

An Air Commando Hero is gone…

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Shame on the “main stream media” for not giving this the attention it deserves. I guess that it has been overshadowed by the summer games in Missouri… you know the shoot, loot and scoot happening in Ferguson.

Well… I hope lots of you share this and post about this. During the Vietnam war fourteen US Airmen were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. That’s it out of millions that served. Many more deserved it, but Bernie Fisher was one of the fourteen.

Here’s today’s news story…

Bernie was and still… is revered throughout the US Air Force… and now he is gone.

I salute you Colonel Fisher

The Northernmost Caribbean – Beach Daze

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Today’s musings will be short. I want to mostly post a bunch of pics I took at the beach. But first… a bit about going to the beach.

I don’t care how old you are, a beach day makes you a teenager again… well, at least it does me. I want to go get a surfboard and wow everyone with my skills. ‘Cept I never had great surfer skills. I always went off to a secluded area where I could try to surf with no one watching. These days I look for a secluded area for different reasons… but that’s for another tale.

I got to be “OK” as a surfer, but never more than that. What was most important is that you were “cool” just carrying a surfboard… or “cool” sitting on the beach with a surfboard… or “cool” just driving around town with a surfboard. Maybe that’s what I’ll do now. I’ll get a surfboard to carry around to be cool. I’ll have to find a secluded beach to see if I can still even stand up on the surfboard…  of course knowing where a secluded beach is has other “advantages”.

In the past, part of the reason we all went to the beach was to get a tan. Today, going to the beach is vastly different for most folks… we are scared of bad things the sun can do to you. Everyone seems to slather SPF # ten-zillion all over themselves. Not me. I still go out and try to get “some sun”. I do carry Coppertone with me so that I don’t get sun burned, but protection isn’t the only reason for specifically using Coppertone… it’s because of the smell. Nothing says “Beach, Sun & Surf” to me more than the smell of Coppertone.

So… today I went down to the beach. I don’t have a surfboard, but I do have a “boogie board”. The surf is kinda flat in this region, so it’s about 50/50 if you would be able to go surfin’. But a “boogie board” is good about 90% of the time. The water was warm. I grabbed my “boogie board”…  flogged myself into the water… and I was a teenager again.

Surfin' USA

Surfin’ USA

 

A nice "ride"

A nice “ride”

 

Building castles

Building castles

 

A great day at the beach

A great day at the beach

 

IMG_3609

 

Arrrgggghhhh

Arrrgggghhhh

Coolness

Having a surfboard insures coolness.

IMG_3554

IMG_8439

Surfer Girl

Surfer Girl

I am amazed at what can be done with skimboards these days.

I am amazed at what can be done with skimboards these days.

Wipeout

Wipeout

Day's End

Day’s End

 

 

 

The Northenmost Caribbean – Apartment Hunting

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It’s really hard to believe it’s already the well into June. The last few weeks have been quite a whirlwind. Wow… barely four weeks ago I was living in California and now I’m living in the Northernmost Caribbean. Yeah… it’s been quite a few weeks.

Finding a place to live here turned out to be a challenge. First I had to drag a U-Haul trailer, with all the stuff I would need for survival, all the way across the country. I arrived in Fort Walton Beach on the evening of the 20th. Almost as soon as I arrived I couldn’t help myself… I had to go to the beach. So trailer and all I went down to the “Boardwalk”. That’s my favorite place in Fort Walton Beach. I just had to go see the sugar white, powder soft sand of the Northernmost Caribbean. Oh… those luscious white mounds at the Fort Walton Beach. Errrr…. mounds of sand.

My first order of business was to find a place to live… that is, after visiting the beach. That turned out to harder than I thought. I really, really wanted to be within walking distance from the beach… and crawling distance from a local watering hole. When I was in Key West last year, I could stumble out of my place into any of several watering holes down on Duval Street. This year it didn’t look as if it was going to work out that way.

Trying to find a place at the beginning of summer isn’t a good plan. Every place I went seemed to be overburdened with folks looking for a place to rent but they all seemed to want durations ranging  from a week to a month or two. But… in Florida, anything less than six months is considered a “hotel” and is taxed at 10.5%. So most of the “regular” places… apartments and such… require at least seven month long leases. I knew this from the beginning, but it seemed that thousands of people have descended on the area not knowing anything about this. So all of the places I was looking at were plagued with people clogging up the offices.

To make a long story short… the place I really wanted to stay was full and the only thing I could do to get in there would be to get on a waiting list. Well, there was no way I could stay in a motel/hotel until some day in the future when something would be available. So, I expanded my search to other areas along the Emerald Coast.

Hummm…. the name, “Emerald Coast”, was dreamed up by the chambers of commerce all along the “Northernmost Caribbean”. They got together to come up with a name that would attract tourists. Before they came up with “Emerald Coast”, the only semi-official name was the “Miracle Strip”… and “Miracle Strip” was really only used for the area around Fort Walton Beach. The name people used a lot for the region and beaches along the ocean was the “Redneck Rivera”.

Well, the Chambers of Commerce couldn’t let it stay known as the “Redneck Rivera”. So, they went through a long campaign to make the name “Emerald Coast” stick. And the world “Emerald” does a good job of describing the color of the water just a few yards off the shore. So not only do we have those luscious white mounds… of sand, we also have the emerald water. Just the same, I like the “Northernmost Caribbean” better and that’s what I’ll use from now on.

Anyway… my search for a place to live went all along the Northernmost Caribbean from nearly Pensacola to the West and Panama City to the East. Finding a place to live was hard work so I had to stop in to have a frozen concoction to help me hang on.

 

A frozen concoction to help me hang on.

A frozen concoction to help me hang on.

 

Finally I found a place I could move into right away in Panama City Beach… the place where tens of thousands of college students flock every Spring Break. It meets all of my requirements… I can walk to the beach and crawl home from the nearby watering holes. I’m even close to a Margaritaville cafe… not close enough to crawl, but close enough to walk. Since they have live entertainment there every day, I suspect that I’ll be spending more than the occasional visit there to have a frozen concoction to help me hang on.

The place I ended up with is… well, paradise. This is my back yard. You can’t see it in this pic because it’s dark, but the tall buildings in this pic are right on the ocean.

My Backyard

My Backyard

I suspect I’ll have lots of visitors.