Alaska – Radiance Of The Seas cruise, Vancouver.

Posted on July 15, 2012 by mikethemap

My wife and I celebrated our tenth anniversary in Feb 2012. To celebrate we decided to take and Alaskan cruise.  We invited several of our closest friends to join us and to help celebrate.

The cruise we chose was Royal Caribbean’s Radiance Of The Seas, porting out of Vancouver, BC with a final destination of Seward, AK.

We flew to Vancouver on Thursday.  Our first adventure was finding transportation to our hotel downtown. We discussed taxi and shuttle bus and we ended up getting a limo to take all eight of us.  It was interesting for me, being only the second time in my life I’d ever ridden in a limo. It did kinda feel like we were rock stars. 🙂

We arrive at our hotel, the Moda; get checked in, and immediately begin the pursuit of lunch.

We walk around downtown Vancouver and locate the Yaletown area.  This area is full of restaurants and breweries.  We decide on the Yaletown Brewing Co. for lunch. Food was excellent, the beer was outstanding, especially the Black and Tan.  Yum!!

After lunch we do a bit more sightseeing, then head back to the hotel.  With the 3 hour time change it felt weird going to bed at 8:30 local time and having complete daylight. Try falling asleep under those conditions. Thank goodness for the beer.

Friday morning we are up by 6 am.  First order of business, breakfast.  I look up local diners based on ratings and find a four star rated diner, named the Elbow Room Cafe is only 4 blocks from our hotel.  Off we go.  We arrive and are seated. The place is small and cramped.  The server is berating everyone who walks in and is calling everyone ladies and bitches.  We order our food, which arrives quickly and well prepared.  Whatever reservations or misconceptions I had vanished as soon as I took my first bite. The food was great!  Next trip to Vancouver will definitely include a stop at the Elbow Room.

After breakfast we head back to the hotel to check out.  We had previously arranged for a shuttle bus to pick us up at the hotel and transport us to the port.  Shuttle picks us up, drives us maybe 10 blocks and drops us off at the port.  We get our luggage checked in and head back into downtown for more sightseeing and lunch.

We found another brewery near the port for lunch, the Steamworks Pub, Brewery, and Restaurant.  Another gem.  Food and drink were excellent.

After lunch, we did more sightseeing and souvenir shopping. a couple hours later we boarded the ship.

More to follow…..

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Jim Krumal

Posted on June 30, 2012 by mikethemap

One part of my motto states “people I know”.  With this being my actual first “real” post, I’d like to use this opportunity to remember one of my dearest friends.  On Tuesday, June 26 2012, Jim Krumal passed away. This man helped me greatly when I first left the Air Force and went into the private sector.  I was hired by TRW Information Networks Division as a Field Tech supporting their proprietary LAN interface devices (who remembers the ACU and the LAN Loader?). Jim worked out of the TRW office in Torrance, CA and decided to transfer to Dayton and support the AFITNET and MEDLAN projects.  After he and his family relocated to Dayton, we spent many weekends together.  Grilling out was one of Jim’s favorite things to do. My first summer working for TRW I never went hungry thanks to Jim and his wife, Terrie. They made me feel like I was part of their family.

There are so many good memories of the times I shared with Jim.  The TRW bowling league, travel for work, Aftermath, Scarpelli’s basement parties, Redd Foxx on the flight from LA to Detroit, coffee, Chinese food, more grill outs, business, and helping me move several times.  One of my favorite memories is from the Dayton Air and Trade show in the summer of 1988.  Myself, Jim, Barney Leslie, and Sam Smith all worked the trade show demoing the various TRW products.  During one of our off periods away from the vendor booth, Jim and I went out to check out all the aircraft lined up on the runway.  We happened to run into one of the local meteorologists (her name escapes me now).  I snapped a picture of their meeting thinking I could use it as “blackmail” against him.  After the picture was developed I gave him a copy. I always told him it looked like this woman was making a pass at him. We laughed about this picture for many years.

Jim will always be a special part of my life. When you look at the picture from the Air Show, just think what a good man he was.

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Hello world!

Posted on June 6, 2012 by mikethemap

Welcome to WordPress.com! This is my very first post. I hope to share some of the things important in my life with my family and closest friends. Enjoy! I know I will.

Happy blogging!

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