ImprovAcadia on Land & on the Sea

Home & Haleakala

2011-04-18T11:55:00.008-05:00

Hello,

We're back in the lovely state of Maine. We had a long 20 hours of travel - we flew out of Honolulu at 11pm, arrived Phoenix at 7am, arrived Boston at 5pm then flew to Bar Harbor at 7:30pm and arrived home at 9pm. Ugh. All in all it was too bad. From Honolulu to Phoenix we were surrounded by a group of 75 middle school kids who were on their way to an archeological dig in Colorado. I thought to myself, "Oh, crap" and they were actually delightful. I sat by two of them and they were very nice. We got to see the Rockies from the plane and that was amazing.

Our last two weeks in Hawaii were great, I mean it's Hawaii, right?, but my favorite day was our Haleakala adventure. Haleakala is the highest point on Maui - topping out at just over 10,000 feet. We drove up late Sunday afternoon after lunch in Makawao and arrived at the top around 4pm. Sunset wasn't until 6:30ish so we had time to look around. Last time we'd gone up we arrived after the peak of the sunset and it was amazing to watch the stars but we couldn't see the crater....which I learned is not a crater but actually a valley. Bam. So we stopped and looked and even did a short hike and here are the photos to prove it....

First stop on the way....I can't remember the name of the overlook....anyone?

Andy & John - the models who went with us

The sun had this ring around it...I'm sure there's a name for the phenom

The Valley

The valley with cloud cover - the clouds were amazing - you can really watch the weather up on Haleakala

Our first view of the Sliding Sands trail

A Chukar - a flightless partridge - not much lives at 10,000 feet but these guys do. It can't fly at the altitude so it walks and hops. There were two of them and we crossed their path several times.

View from Sliding Sands

Another view about 2 minutes later

Andy on the edge of the world

After the short lung bursting hike, note to self: do not run at 10,000 feet, it was sunset time.

A lot of people thought it was over at this point so they left....or they were freezing...it was so cold up there that my fingers hurt....but then it got good again...

We had a double layer of clouds - below and above us - so while we could watch the sunset we couldn't stargaze. Weirdly it was clear enough to see the Big Island, Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa.

After we watched the sunset to the bitter end, we drove back down. It was a great day!

I have a few more Hawaii posts and will try to get those up soon. Now back to setting into our home!

~Jen

Photo Update time....

2011-03-30T18:46:00.005-05:00

Aloha!

We are in our last two weeks. Last week a large part of my family came to visit - my Dad, his Wife, her Daughter and her husband and their two girls. We had a great time and I got to try two things that I've never done before - parasailing and ziplining. The trip was marred by high seas which caused by stepsister, Michele, to be seasick for most of the trip. Bummer. I think everyone really loved Hawaii. Here are some photos....

Snorkeling at Black Rock on Maui - Jay, Sophie, Michele & Isabel

Volcano National Park - Jay, Michele, Larrance, Jim, Mary, Isabel, Sophie & Me

In the UFO Parasailing Boat - Isabel, Me & Dad

Preparing to Zip - Dad, Isabel, Sophie & Jay

Mid Zip

On Saturday, we said Aloha Oe to the fam and then on Sunday we went to Haleakala to watch the sunset.

10,000ft here we come!

Larrance on the edge of the world

Andy on Sliding Sands trail into the crater

The Crater

The sunset

We're ready to go home - we miss Maine and our house - but Hawaii is so lovely that it will be hard to go.

More later.....

Jen

5 weeks and Counting

2011-03-06T17:22:00.010-05:00

Hi Everyone,

I've been a bit remiss with my blogging but I'm back to update it.

My last update was the beginning of February, right? Yes. February was very busy - it is the month of my birth and so I insist that we celebrate all month. I. Am. A. Pill. So what did we do?

We went to the Volcano National Park with the whole cast and we drove the entire Chain of Destruction road. It was amazing. I wrote about this before - I bought a hoodie - remember?

Here are some photos:

The new coast line

Petrogylphs!

Chain of Destruction Road!

Holei Sea Arch and, as usual, a serious Larrance

Then our friend Matt Marcy and his wife, Tiffany, came to visit. Matt is a magician and he performs on the ship a few times a year. We got to know one another last year and have stayed in touch through out the year. He had a three week contract but his amazing partner - Tiffany - was only here for one week. So we had to adventure.....

They'd never been to the Nakele Blowhole and apparently I can't enough of blowholes (watch it!) so we went there. It was an amazingly stormy day complete with a high surf advisory so the blowhole was, uh, blowing.

We hung out with them all week - dinners and drinks and such. We hadn't really gotten to know Tiffany and she's 100% de-light-ful! Turns out that Matt is just okay.

We had a great time.

Matt & Tiff on the crew deck.

Na Pali Coast from the crew deck looking aft.

I suppose the big event of the month was my Birthday. I'm not sure everyone felt that way but I did. I started my "Birth Week" with a trip to the Honolulu Art Academy for art viewing and museum lunch. I have a real thing about eating in Museum restaurants. I love them. I think this stems from trips to the museum with my Mom and it was cemented with a trip to DC in the 8th grade. I love museum restaurants! I still remember eating at the Smithsonian Modern Wing Museum - the restaurant is on the 2nd floor and you get to look at the Calders while you eat. Awesome!

The Honolulu Art Academy is a lovely museum. It's small enough to do in one day without feeling visually or physically overwhelmed. They also have very interesting permanent and temporary exhibits. They have a whole wing of Hawai'i art which is very interesting. We tried taking some photos but got in trouble - BUSTED! So I just have a few images....

Kaneko piece in the courtyard - across from the restaurant!

Kaneko detail

The restaurant and the courtyard

Bluesteel in the main courtyard

This is Japanese print of Moon Rabbits stealing a Mochi Cake - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_rabbit

I want to go visit the Bishop Museum which has a larger collection of Hawaiian art and artifacts. Hopefully we'll get there before we leave in just five weeks....five weeks. I do feel ready to go home - I miss Maine in all of its snowy glory. I miss my house. It's funny to be in paradise and feel like you're ready to go home. Well luckily we have whales to watch!

Yay! Whales! We went on an amazing whale watch on Maui. We sailed from Ma'alea Harbor and we were very lucky. We saw a Mama and Baby Humpback whale right out of the harbor. The Mama was teaching the baby how to breach, Pectoral slap and tail slap. They did several double breaches. I got a few photos but honestly my camera wasn't good enough.

Larrance, John, Matt & Andy on the Whale Watch

Whale breach...the little splash the right is the tail end of the baby's breach.

After the Mama & Baby, we came upon no less than 5 groups of male whales fighting for females. They fight by performing Punduncle tail slaps and headbutting each other. As we watched, one group of males like 4 others showed up and it was a whale rumble. They were going nuts. One male performed like 50 tail slaps in a row and then he started peduncle slapping. Wow! Then as we watched we were surrounded by whales - they were everywhere. It was awe inspiring. So after that we went and had drinks...Matt got drunk on Mai Tai's....I can't take him anywhere. Then we all drunkly rode the bus back to Kahalui because after you see whales you have to get a little drunk - a great day!

We hiked Diamond Head and had Pukka dogs with Matt & Victoria! Fun! After we hiked and had lunch, we went over to Wakiki to look back at Diamond Head.

Matt, Larrance and Victoria - looking out over the crater of Diamond Head.

View of Wakiki from Diamond Head - see the pink bldg? That's where I took the next photo from...

The view of Diamond Head from Wakiki Beach near Duke's

Moody Big Beach - you can't see the big waves because of the dropoff right by where those people are standing.

We climbed up and over to Little Beach to get a good view of Big Beach...behind me. I don't have a pic of Little Beach because everyone is naked over there. Naked and playing sports or banging a drum and by that I mean playing a drum.

Then on my Birthday we ate BBQ in Kihei, swam at Big Beach and almost got killed by the waves (fun!) and then we had dinner at Flatbreads. Luckily for me, our friend and great comic Kermet Apio was onboard and he joined us for dinner! Yay!

I shared my Birthday with Sean (from Oh, What a Night! a Frankie Valley tribute show). So on our actual bday, we went to Tutti Frutti and then we had two shows and drinks afterward......it was a very successful and wonderful birthday.

Sean & I at Tutti Frutti on our bdays!

As I mentioned, we only have five weeks left. In just two weeks, my Dad, his wife Mary, her daughter Michele and Michele's family are all coming to visit. They will be on the ship for one week - exciting! - we have many adventures planned and I look forward to showing them Hawai'i.

I'm working on the schedule for our upcoming eighth season. So in between these big adventures, I'm at the computer tearing my hair out trying to make the schedule. Ugh. It's always a big challenge to get 30 people's schedule to form into a cohesive season.

Right now, I have to walk to Office Max to get giant pads of paper for our show....after that I think we're going to head over to the beach and check out the turtle sex party (not a euphemism) and have a picnic.

Aloha to you all!

Delinquent, As Usual....

2011-02-28T17:14:00.002-05:00

Hi All,

I've been a bit tardy with my blog writing. I'll catch up later this week. I have more photos and more adventures to share!

Soon!

~Jen

Late Photos

2011-02-06T17:52:00.003-05:00

Hi All,

Here are the photos I wanted to post on Thursday but I couldn't....

The Monkey King faces off with an opponent during the parade.

Parade decorations

Protea Flower at Lavender Farm

Another Protea at Lavender Farm - oh, and Lavender!

Sun Yat-Sen Memorial w/ Agave Plant and John & Andy

Well, now the blog is freaking out so more photos later! Bleh.

Jen

Lions, Lavender and Lava

2011-02-03T22:29:00.005-05:00

Hi Everyone,

Is anyone reading this? I'm curious.

Saturday was the official Dragon Parade for Chinese New Year in Honolulu's China Town - we went! It was fun. I gave the Lion Dancer a buck and he danced for me (and some children) so now we all have good luck.

We also went to the Upcountry on Maui which was as always lovely. We went to the Tedeschi Winery and finally got to do the tour which was fine. Then we went to the Lavender Farm and then had dinner in Paia at Milagro's which is always great.

Anyway - we had a big adventure this week. We went to Volcano National Park on the big island. It was fantastic. We saw the active crater of Kilauea, the sulfur banks and then we drove the Chain of Craters road all the way to the ocean to see the Holei sea arch and to do a small hike to the Pu'u Loa Petroglyphs. I have never been in an environment like that - it was a stunning and looked alien. We loved it.

I will post photos next time - my wifi is too slow!

Last year, we went the Volcano National Park separate from the cast. When the rest of the cast went, Rance bought a sweatshirt that has the Volcano National Park logo on it. I was so envious of that sweatshirt and have thought of it since. So I bought one!! I love it and now everyone envies me! ME!

More later,

Jen

Two Blowholes and a Monk

2011-01-26T17:00:00.005-05:00

Hi Everyone,

Well, we've been healthy for two weeks! We've gone on lots of adventures.

Last week we rented a car on Thursday on the island of Kauai. The whole cast went along and we toured a large part of the island. There was a high surf advisory so even protected beaches were really rough. We went to Poipu to snorkel and we were lucky enough to see another Monk Seal. The snorkeling was okay due to the surf but it was just nice to get in the water.

From there we went to Spouting Horn. Spouting Horn is a blowhole on the shore of Kauai. The legend of Spouting Horn is this - a female Molo (giant evil lizard) was living on the shore and eating fisherman - one fisherman was attacked by the Molo and he managed to drive his fishing spear into her mouth and trap her in the blowhole. She is still trapped there to this day and every time Spouting Horn blows you can hear her roar in pain and hunger.

The roar every time it blew was very cool - kind of creepy and eerie. Worth the stop!

From there, we drove all the way to end of the road which was the head of the Na Pali coast. We also looked at Barking Sands and the Military Base located there. The road was literally blocked off with a military blockade.

After that we decided we would go to the Waimea Brewery and have a beer and some happy hour appetizers. It was beautiful there - they are located on the grounds of an old Sugar Plantation and there are several cute rental bungalows on the grounds. We walked out to the black sand beach at sunset and watched the sun melt below the lip of the world.

On Honolulu, we went snorkeling which was nice. We saw the biggest Trumpet fish we've ever seen.

On Maui, we rented another car. This time the crew was Andy, John, us and Sean from "Oh, What a Night!" (OWAN). OWAN is a Frankie Valley tribute show on the ship. They sing and dance and tell jokes. Sean is a lot of fun and he's quick to laugh so we're big fans.

We all piled into a little car and drove to the Iao Needle Valley and then we hiked the Acid Warzone to the Nakele Blowhole. The surf was high again so it was all very dramatic.

We did this hike last year and it was great to share it with the new cast members this year.

Today we're on Kona and it gorgeous. It seems the storm system that was sitting on the islands is gone so we're in good weather.

Photo time!

Poipu Beach

Monk Seal on Poipu Beach

Spouting Horn

Spouting Horn the other side

John, Andy & Larrance at Spouting Horn

Iao Needle - they believe it is the phallus of the ocean god.

Iao Needle Valley

Nakelele Blowhole doing its thing.

Awwwww

L in the Acid Warzone

Rocks of the Acid Warzone

Rock detail

Maui Sunset over Ma'alaea Harbor

Sunset end - followed by a great Green Flash which I just missed taking a photo of!

Sick in Hawai'i

2011-01-17T16:48:00.004-05:00

We've had a rough couple of weeks. We've both had a nasty sinus infection which we are getting over. Then the ship went through a GI breakout which affected both of us. I've never caught it before and it is worse than any food poisoning or flu I've ever had before. I wouldn't wish it on anyone - not even Sarah Palin. So awful. I did lose those 2lbs. that were plaguing me. So that's good.....

So we haven't done too much over the last couple of weeks except for laying in bed and wishing to either be unconscious or as completely numb. We did all of our shows - well I missed half an improv show when I had to run out to throw up repeatedly. That was dramatic.

We did get a tour of the belly of the ship from the Chief Engineer. He showed us everything from the electric transfomers to the engines to the water treatment facility. It was all very impressive. I thought I would take photos but honestly it just looks like a bunch of machines - boxy and kind of the same. We did get to see inside of the shaft drives for the azipods so there's that.

We had very dramatic weather last week. The seas were so high that we couldn't tender in Kona. We left and instead cruised around Maui looking for whales. I had a great deal of fun and frustration listening to passengers complain about the whales.

Here are some direct quotes from some of the idiots

Why aren't they jumping up so we can see them?

They should feed them so they come right over the boat

There aren't any whales out there - they're lying. (a whale breached every time she looked away)

I don't know they're just not as impressive as Shamoooo.

I wanted to tell them all the reason they were dumb but I work there so I couldn't. Boo. So I made fun of them in the improv show - Vindication!

Yesterday (Sunday) we were feeling better so we went to Lahaina with John and Andy.

We took the bus.

Lahaina is like the Bar Harbor of Maui so we felt right at home.

We're hoping to go snorkeling on Kauai later this week. Keep your fingers crossed and washed please!

Jen

Hawai'i Again

2011-01-02T17:13:00.006-05:00

Hey All -

We've been on the ship for three weeks. Before that we were in Chicago for two weeks, rehearsing and holding auditions for our upcoming season.

Chicago was a lot of fun. We got to see lots of friends and experience a little bit of winter. The first week was all rehearsals for the ship - we rehearsed our show and the new Murder Mystery. Rehearsals were a lot of fun. They always are.

The second week we were there we were off work. Why? Well Andy & John, two of our cast mates, had to go a week early to do their Merchant Marine training so we got a free week in Chicago. We used the week to see friends, walk the city and hold auditions. We had a great turnout for our auditions - over 100 people - and we saw lots of great folks.

I did have one disturbing side effect of winter hit me - I got "winter rash." Basically I got hives everywhere but my face which was just lovely. I thought at first I was having an allergic reaction but it turns out it was just my body freaking out over the cold. Yep. I'm allergic to the cold. I got over it with some cortisone and lots of moisturizing.

While we were there we went to a great show called Alien Queen - it is a mash-up of the Alien movies (the first two) with the music of Queen. It was a great show with cross dressing, puppets a full band and lots of singing! We also saw John Hartman's solo show "I'm Sorry I Missed You" which was wonderful.

We got on the ship on December 11th. We had a great first week with our Director, Matt Craig, and our Producer, Beth Kligerman. We had our mainstage and the murder mystery within the first 3 days of getting onboard. It was a bit crazy. This did free us up to have a big adventure on Kaui'i. We rented a van and went to the Waimea Canyon, Grand Canyon of the Pacific, which was great. Beth took us all out to dinner at a localavore place called 22 North. It was delicious.

We're settling into the ship. I seem to have a caught a small sinus infection. I'll feel rundown and then feel better and then back to run down again. I'm going to the doctor today so I'm sure I'll get better right away.

I got a new camera so I'll put a few photos too - more to come!

NYE on the POA!

Fireworks over Honolulu on NYE

Napali Coast - Kauai'i

Napali Whale - look for the blow in the lower left corner!

Us at the end of 2010

Some random images from 2010

My nephew, George, graduated in 2010! That's him with his parents - Dan & Dorthy. Dan is my brother.

My Mom and I and Laurenitz Gardens in Omaha!

My Dad and his wife, Mary, visited MDI this summer!

Delinquent

2010-07-17T10:19:00.002-05:00

Hello All,

Well, I've been a bit delinquent in writing this blog. Sorry. We've been very busy and having a fair amount of fun.

We're half way through July. We've done two ImproVisions and several shows at ImprovAcadia.

This year has been a bit different because we've been closed on Sundays. This upcoming Sunday (otherwise known as tomorrow) will be our last closed day until after Labor Day. We've had some great days off - lots of hiking, nachos, chats and movies. This is the first year we've done this. Now Larrance will only go six weeks without a day off instead of 16. I've really been enjoying this because I don't always get a regular day off (at least I get one, right?) so it's been great to know that I have one coming every Sunday no matter what.

We had a fun ImproVision last night. We did the Killer Klowns from Outer Space. If you're familiar with that movie, you know what a great time we had. We ended up re-dubbing it as a Mafia film. Surprisingly, it really worked it out.

We've confirmed our next ship contract. We will be going back to the POA in Hawai'i. We're very excited and looking forward to exploring more of the islands.

I think that's all for now.......if anyone has any questions about the season, you could post them and I'll answer...

~Jen

Home & Opening

2010-06-11T10:00:00.002-05:00

Hi Everyone,

Well, we're back home in Maine. We made it home from Hawai'i after almost 24 hours of travel. The travel wasn't that bad. I did fall asleep on the floor of the Detroit airport but really it was fairly easy.

When we landed in Bangor, we were really looking forward to getting back to our home! We drove to Ellsworth and entered our house. Ahhh, to be home. Then we realized that our water had not been turned back on.....and it was Sunday so we couldn't call the plumber and get them to come over. We were distraught and jet lagged. We thought, "well, I guess we can go to a hotel." Which was, quite frankly, a very disappointing thought. We wanted to be in our home. In a pickle and unsure what to do I called my Mom, like any good girl, and told her our situation. She suggested we camp out in our house. We had heat and electricity so really we had everything but water. We got a bucket and I'm sure you can guess the rest. It was so lovely to be in our home. Also we took at nap at 7pm - we had too!

We dealt with the effects of jet lag for a few days. Being at home and not really having a schedule allowed us to reset our body clocks pretty quickly. We did have to deal with town business for ImprovAcadia. We had to apply for all of our licenses and permits. So we did that on our first day back.....they were all granted!

At this point, we've been open for 2 weeks. So far the season has been great.

Our opening night was particularly wonderful. We had a full house and such a nice house too. When the lights came up to start the show, the audience broke into a huge round of applause and cheering. It was amazing. We had a great show. Our opening cast was Vince Kracht, Bob Kulhan and me. A very fun group.

We are now settling into the season and over the next few weeks we will be adding shows as the weeks go by. This year we are trying something a bit different - we are going to be close on Sundays until almost the end of July. Larrance needs a day off!

Oh, another development. For anyone who knows our house or well, really, the house next to our house. The old decrepit yellow house was purchased in foreclosure over the winter! The man who bought it is a local real estate developer and he's is having the house completely renovated. They tore off the breezeway between the garage and the house. Then they gutted the house and now they're redoing everything. So we might have neighbors soon......I hope they don't (like the last ones) mow down the peonies because they "attract ants", stare at us everytime we leave the house, scream "I love you" like they're saying "I hate you", keep garbage on their lawn. I mean I know our lawn is a weed fest but it's clean and we have lots of flowers and plants mixed in with those weeds....we call it the Natural Look.

I really am going to try and keep up with this blog. You just wait and see!

~Jen

2 Weeks Left

2010-04-05T17:09:00.008-05:00

Hi All,

We have just under two weeks left! We're looking forward to heading home but we will miss Hawai'i.

We've had quite a few more adventures in the past few weeks.

We went cliff jumping on Kauai at Kipu Falls. It was only twenty feet high and the pool below was free of rocks. Now, I should tell you that I've never even jumped off of a diving board but I thought that this cliff seemed like a good place to start jumping off of things.
That's the jump behind me. I went off the cliff once and then off the rope swing too. Larrance and Mike both jumped too. Then we went to Poipu beach and saw this....
A Monk Seal! It was just dozing on the beach. Amazing.

We also hiked the Na Pali coast last week. It was 4 miles of muddy, beautiful, (at points) treacherous and inspiring coastline.
This is what it looks like on the trail. And this is what is looks like from the ship.I'm running out of battery so I'll post more later!

If I don't see you here, I'll see you at home soon!

~Jen

Okay....now....hmmmm

2010-03-17T18:10:00.012-05:00

A view from the Upcountry

Well, a lot has happened since my last post. I celebrated my Birthday on Feb. 28th. In a totally weirdo turn, it rained all day on Maui. We did manage to find some sunshine in the Upcountry. The cast rented a mini-van and we took a rainy trip to the Iao Needle Valley and got soaked. Then we went to the Upcountry and looked at the views and went to the Tedeschi Winery. It was fun.

Rainy Iao Needle Valley

Rance & Deanna at Grandma's Coffee House in the Upcountry

Piero, Mike, Jen & Larrance at Grandma's Coffee HouseBirthday Rainbow!Fun with perspectiveMike doing "the usual" View from the Upcountry to La Perouse

Larrance and I had just gone to the Upcountry the week before - we visited the Winery and the Ali'i Lavendar Farm. The Lavendar farm was great...lookee!

Larrance relaxes on the Lavender Farm

View from the Farm to the ocean

View of the Lavender Farm

We tried their Lavender Scones with Lavender Coffee and Lavender Earl Grey Tea. Delightful!

We also tried boogie boarding for the first time. FUN!!!!! It was amazing. Some of the cast had tried surfing and said it was super hard but boogie boarding is the opposite. I'm sure surfers probably look down upon it but I say "poo to you" it's awesome. We tried it on Kalapalaki Beach on Kauai. Mike, Deanna, Larrance and I went there on a very stormy day and rode those waves. I wiped out twice - basically I miscalculated the wave and instead of riding on it, I rode under it. Mistake but still funsies! I will do it again!

Since my last post, we've also done the Road to Hana. For anyone who is not familiar, the Road to Hana is on Maui and it is a twisty turny, one-way bridge, beauty fest. Because the road it so twisty we rented 3 small cars so we could all ride in the front seat...this made it much more pleasant what with less car sickness. The Road to Hana (RTH hereafter) is filled with waterfalls, bamboo forests and all kinds of delights.

Bamboo? Bamyou.

Little Bear Falls

The best delight on RTH is the Banana Bread stands. There are a a lot of them. We stopped at one called Halfawy on the RTH and the bread was fantastic. I don't have a picture of the bread - we ate it!

We had lunch overlooking the village of Nihiku.
We stopped at a Black Sand beach and looked at the beach, a sea cave and some other caves.

Cool sea arch and meView from the sea cavePiero, Rance, Deanna & Larrance on black sandCave where a Queen was killed...don't remember name!...they say the water turns red now and then. Creepy.

The RTH was great. Larrance and turned back after the Black Sand beach. Later that night, we met Mike & Deanna for dinner at the delicious Flatbreads. Amazing food!

This week we've had two adventures. On Maui, Piero, Larrance and I took a bus to Wailuku and started walking to the Iao Needle Valley. I know - we went there on my bday but it was so rainy we couldn't really see anything. We were walking there and about a mile/half mile away when we ran into Mike with his friend Kea. Kea had a BMW and offered us ride - we took it! He also became our informal guide through the Valley. Kea is from Maui so he told us about the valley and showed us the hidden swimming place. Well, not hidden but off the trail. It was wonderful.

Iao Needle - they say this is a God's penis. They do, too!View from the Valley to Wailuku and the ocean.Secret swimming spot with Kea & MikeMike doing "the usual."

After that we had Tutti Frutti, that's a local frozen yogurt chain. Delicious. I had Taro yogurt which is my favorite. How will I live without it?
Then Mike, Larrance and I got a little picnic from Whole Foods and went to the beach and ate it. We saw turtles along the way!

On Tuesday, we went for an aerial tour of Hilo. Deanna had chatted up this guy, Capt. Ron, and he offered us a special deal. We left the ship at 9am and headed for a small air field. Then we got on a little plane and went to see the volcano, waterfalls and other stuff. Here are some photos!

On the plane - us plus Renetta from Toby BeauLarrance is ready to fly.Pu'u'u vent - Magma below the steam!New lava field

You could see lava in person not so much here.....but trust me, it's there.

Fresh Lava, anyone?

New land & the ocean.Boiling Pots

Boiling pots again....?Keaukaha - a great swimming spot near the ship

That brings us up to date! We're thinking about going rock jumping at a waterfall tomorrow but nothing is firm yet.....we have just over 4 weeks left of our contract. It's been great!

~Jen

Bad Jen

2010-03-13T17:13:00.001-05:00

I'm working on a new post. Honestly, I felt crappy from that flu for about 2 weeks after I got over the major symptoms. I'm putting together some new photos and stories. I promise you.

~Jen

Oh My....

2010-02-20T17:37:00.003-05:00

Hi Everyone,

Well, I haven't posted recently but I have a good excuse! I came down with Swine Flu! At least I think I had the Swine Flu, I had all the symptoms of it and I was awfully sick. I was sick enough to miss a show and to do a lot of (s)whining. I'm better now and ready for more adventure so I'll be posting another entry in the next few days....

I did want to share that we've been seeing a lot of dolphins recently. Yesterday as we viewed Na Pali coast there must have been a pod of 60 Spinner dolphins around the ship. They were jumping, spinning and cavorting. One of them swam right by the ship, just under the surface of the water, for about 5 minutes. It really looked like a ghost.

The whales have also been at it again - lots of breaching, tail slapping and head slaps. Those whales know how to put on a show.

We did go on a whale watch and snorkel trip on Monday. It was spectacular. We had a full grown whale (a male?) breach about 50 yards from the ship. It breached like 4 times in a row and then it stayed on the surface where we all got a real good look at it. The snorkeling was only so-so mostly because I got super cold. I think I was still getting over the flu...dumb flu.

My Birthday occurs in just over a week! I will be 40 years old in 8 days! Hooray for me!!!

~Jen

Hawaii...Still Awesome

2010-02-01T17:37:00.005-05:00

Haleiwa
Napali Sun
Caldera of Kilauea

Hi All -

Well, we're exactly halfway through our contract! We've been having a great time and I don't anticipate any serious doldrums. It is hard to be away from home. I miss seeing family and friends, going to knitting on Monday nights and cooking at home. However things like hearing Humpback Whales sing while you snorkel, hiking to an awesome ocean Blowhole complete with Rainbows and having lovely people to share it with makes up for it.

Larrance and I are working on a list of what we want to do before we leave on April 17th. It's a long list but I think we'll accomplish a lot of it.

On Deanna's Birthday, we hiked the Acid Warzone to the Nakalele Blowhole. It was incredible. We hiked on a cliff high above the sea and gazed down on semi-accessible tidal pools and the landscape had been carved and sculpted by the ocean spray. The colors were amazing - a mix of red, a dusty green, grey with the blue background of the ocean. We came to a smaller blowhole first and then kept on to the larger blowhole. There was a high surf advisory that day so the blowhole was very active.

The best part of the blowhole was every time it blew (some of the blows we're like 300 yards high) it created a "curtain" rainbow. The rainbow would start by the blowhole and then as the mist moved away from the blowhole and toward the land so would the rainbow as though someone was pulling a curtain across the landscape. Lovely.

We had to leave the blowhole when a group of teens appeared, surrounded the hole and began screaming and sticking their faces into the steam of water. It went from quietly inspiring to still inspiring but somewhat irritating.

Mike had a visitor last week - Tamara Nolte - and so we all went snorkeling on Maui at Black Rock. Black Rock is just what it sounds like...it's a big out cropping of black rock that you can swim along. So one side you have black reef and on the other you have open ocean....I got a new mask, snorkel and fins so I was super speedy and we swam out quickly to see turtles, eels, lots of fish and an Eagle Sting Ray.

I have to say that this is a well known and easy to get to snorkel spot which had the unfortunate effect of attracting a lot of idiots. This sound harsh but let me explain. There was a turtle very close to the shore. It was a big turtle. On the shore there are several signs that say - don't touch the turtle, don't block the turtle's way and so on - but in the water all bets are off. There were about 7 of us watching the turtle. There was one woman and one man who kept swimming right on top of the turtle and then when it would swim towards them they would flee as though it were a shark and not a turtle. The turtle wanted to get away at one point and a man next to me blocked it's way....like you would with a home intruder....I had to stop my fist from rising from the water to punch him in the back of the head. Well, not really but I kind of wanted to and I think the turtle did too.

Anytime I yelled to Larrance that I saw this or that, the thrashing yahoo's would come rushing over and scare it away. So I stopped saying anything...they were all in a hurry anyway so they missed a lot of stuff. Larrance and I are going to develop a series of hand signals so we can communicate without attracting the Thrashers.

I kept hearing strange sounds and I thought it was my new mask burbling and gurgling under the water. Then I realized that the sounds really sounded like Whale Song....a lot....so I swam away from all the thrashing tourists and closed my eyes to just listen. Sure enough I could hear the whales singing...from what I understand it's the males that sing to flirt with the ladies! So I was eavesdropping on a Whale singles club...sounded like a pretty hot party.

We're planning on doing some hiking, snorkeling and some possible helicopter'ing in our remaining time.

Here's some more photos!

Kona Sunset
Napali Blue
Akaka Falls - Hilo
Wailua River Valley

What a Jerk

2010-01-18T18:01:00.007-05:00

Maui Beach...

I am total jerk. I said I would post about our Maui/Haleakala adventure and then I didn't. Well, poo on me.

I know there are at least a few people following this blog so I'm going to try and do a few short posts with photos...see, I get tied down by wanting to write about everything....this makes me late. It's that whole perfectionist/procratinator complex. Yah.

So - what's been happening in Hawaii? Well, lots! We went to Haleakala on Maui and took in the sunset - stunning. We went to a Haleiwa on Oa'hu to check out the town and to see a beach that by afternoon is covered by sea turtles. We went to the Maui Aquarium which was small but had a great reef display. We have been walking a lot. We went to the Foster Botanical garden in Honolulu.

This last week my Mom and her husband, Ray, were visiting. We had a big adventure everyday.
Day 1 - Maui - we rented a car and went to Pa'ia and Lahaina. We watched whales from the cliffs and had dinner at Flatbreads
Day 2 - Maui - we went on a Whale Watch/Snorkel trip. Amazing. A baby whale came right up the ship and then the baby momma and the escort also got pretty close to us.
Day 3 - Hilo -we went the Volcano National Park to see the crater, the caldera and the lava tube. And we went to a orchid place and my Momma bought me an orchid.
Day 4 - Kona - we took it easy. Shopping, coffee and lunch for my Mom and I. We purchased some beautiful lava jewerly.
Day 5 - Kauai - we rented a car and toured Kauai. We saw the Opeakah falls and Waimea Canyon. Awesome.
Day 6 - Kauai - we took it easy because we were, in a word, pooped.
Day 7 - Honolulu/Oahu - we rented a car and went to Haleiwa to eat at Kua'aina Burger, get Coffee Gallery coffee (the best Kauai Peaberry) and to see the turtles.

It was a great week.

Okay now for photos....
Sunset on Haleakala
Makapu'u Lighthouse on Oa'hu
Christmas on the Ship - a snippet of our Secret Santa exchange
Larrance on NYE
Myself, Mike, Deanna & Rance doing bits on NYE
Our weekly viewing of the Napali Coast
A turtle at Alii beach in Haleiwa...the other turtle is me
My Mom showing us how a cat snorkels
My Mom, me, Larrance and Ray with the caldera behind us...
Orchids!
Shopping Kona
A willing Kona Gecko model
Waterfall (Opaekah?) on Kauai
Waimea Canyon on Kauai
The red dirt of Kauai and more of Waimea Canyon
Mom & Larrance on our drive through Waimea
Turtles!
Hiking to the blowhole
Hiking to blowhole through the so called Acid Warzone...
Acid Warzone Larrance
Cool rock formation on the warzone
Blowhole Rainbow Action
On our way to and from the Blowhole, we crossed a field of cairns...this was one of my favorites

What's to come....

2009-12-28T16:21:00.003-05:00

A Teaser of What we did on Maui!

Rehearsals and Settling In...

2009-12-28T16:18:00.000-05:00

Our first week after Merchant Marine training was spent rehearsing for our show. We said good-bye to the first cast and hello to our director Matt and our producer Nate. They were on for the whole first week.

We had a lot of fun rehearsing. Our show opened on Wednesday night (aka Kona Night) and it was very well received.

We did other stuff besides rehearsal although that did take up most of our time. We went to Paia (on Maui) to have dinner at Flatbreads. We went to Ken’s Pancakes on Hilo - famous for their Pancakes - and I had a Moco which is a local dish. Moco is a bowl filled with rice, some kind of meat (I had portuguese sausage), eggs and gravy. It was delicious. We went walking on the boardwalk in Kona.

We were on the island of Kauai on Thanksgiving. We weren’t sure what we were going to do for Thanksgiving dinner but we knew we didn’t want to stay on the ship. In one of our travel books we found a great listing for a place called Gaylord’s. They just happened to be serving a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. It was fabulous and it even included Pumpkin Pie. We did our first improv show that night and it was great. I thank the Pumpkin Pie.

Then we went to the beach (a 10 minute walk from the ship) and it was a perfect day. We did a little swimming and then off to the ship to teach a workshop and view the Napali Coast. The Napali Coast is the North side of Kauai and it is gorgeous. It’s very dramatic and on that particular day the light had this beautiful apricot/gold/pink glow which was a wonderful contrast to the greenness of the coast.

After we said a fond Aloha Oy to Nate and Matt, we started the business of settling in to our new ship lives. We decided to explore Honolulu and do a little Christmas shopping. We headed away from our ship and walked down Ala Moana blvd. It’s a busy street that has a lovely beach on one side and shops on the other. We went to the Ala Moana mall which is unbelievable...it’s huge and it’s all out doors. I got a haircut and Larrance got an iPhone.

We spent that first week just exploring the ports. On Maui, we took a bus from Kauhalui to Lahaina. In Lahaina, we saw a huge Banyan tree and a rainbow. We wanted to go swimming but it was raining.

On Hilo, Larrance and I walked to downtown Hilo which took us on Banyan Tree drive and Queen Lill’aukalani Park. The Banyan Tree Dr. is lined on both sides with huge Banyan Trees. The name of the person who planted them is on a plaque in front of the tree. It was a hot and muggy day and the shade and coolness of the Banyan was very welcome. The Queen Lilliaukalani Park is on the ocean and it’s a Japanese inspired garden park. It was very peaceful and beautiful. Then we had some amazing Mexican food at Reuben’s. I’m going to say this about Reuben’s - we ordered the chips and salsa to start and the salsa was so hot that it was spicy even for us. We LOVED it. The food was great and downtown Hilo was adorable.

On Kona, we went to the Kona Brewery. We tried several sample sizes of their delicious beers. It’s a very nice brewery with a great restaurant attached. We discovered a snorkel spot just off the tender that day - it had an amazing amount of fish considering that it’s right next to the tender boat spot.

Basically we started exploring the various ports and getting a handle on all the things we want to try and do.

Since then we’ve been on the ship for about a month, and we’ve done our shows which have been well received. Just this week we did a show for the Crew on Tuesday night which went great. We celebrated The Second City’s 50th Anniversary with cake and champagne (courtesy of our great Cruise Director, Silas) and we went on a crew excursion to the Makapu’u Lighthouse.

We also had an adventure in Maui but I’ll tell you about that in my next post.

Photo Time

2009-12-11T17:42:00.007-05:00

Rainbow over Lahaina, Maui
Mike is serious about beer tasting at the Kona Brewery
Orchid from the Foster Botanical Garden
Queen Liliau'kalani - view of Hilo
Queen Liliau'kalani Garden, Hilo
The whole cast ready for their Merchant Marine Training
Merchant Marine version of us!
Orchids at the Foster Botanical Garden, Honolulu
A denizen of the Botanical Garden, Honolulu
Palms, Kona

Sunset over Kaui'i
Thanksgiving.....giving thanks at Gaylord's Plantation for a fantastic holiday dinner.

Huh-Ten-Shun!

2009-12-06T21:24:00.000-05:00

We arrived in Honolulu on Saturday November, 14th. We were whisked to the ship and signed on with very little trouble. This was due in no small part to the former cast - Jeff, Jeannie, Brett, Chris, Robin & Mark. They were all hugely helpful.

For the first week, we were all put in temporary housing. Larrance and I ended up in a crew cabin with bunk beds! The room was okay and frankly we were so tired that I fell into bed and didn’t wake up until 5:30am.....of course to my body it felt like it was 9:30am.

It was good that we were getting up so early because we had to go to our first Merchant Marine training class. We had CPR & Life Saving with Stu. Stu was great - funny, informative and smart. The class was actually very interesting and fun. We learned how to do CPR (there’s been some updates since I last took CPR in 2005), the Heimlich on a conscious person and how to help a choking unconscious person. We also learned how to bandage wounds, stop bleeding, bandage wounds with stuff sticking out of them and how to make splints. We had a written test at the end of the day. I missed one and I disputed the phrasing of the question but to no avail. Mike & Rance both got 100’s!

The next day we had the day off. So we got off the ship and ran errands. We went to the Mall to check on getting internet sticks. I didn’t get one but others did. Larrance and I tried Maui Taco and it was delicious! It had a great salsa bar - pineapple salsa with tomatillos and a super hot avocado salsa. Delicious.

Then we walked to the Post Office Box and signed it over from Brett to us. After that Jeff & Jeannie took us to their favorite yogurt place - Tutti Frutti. I wasn’t going to get any yogurt but after I saw the flavors - Taro, Lychee, Lillikoi and some normal flavors like chocolate and peanut butter. They also had a great toppings bar with brownies, blueberries, lychees and captain crunch and a bunch of other stuff. I tried the Taro, Coconut and Vanilla with brownie chunks.....Fantastic!

After that, I was coming to grips with the fact that I seemed to be coming down with a cold. I never got a fever or aches but I had a lot of congestion and I was losing my voice....no pain just no voice. So I went home and neti’ed and then went to bed. The next morning my voice was worse. I couldn’t rest because we had our Crowd Control and Human Behavior class with Amanda.

Amanda was great - our class was part info about CCHB (Crowd Control & Human Behavior) and part info about the islands. She did a good of keeping the class interesting. She was fun to talk to and we found out that her husband is from Maine and that they visit Augusta in the Summer. So, of course, we told her about ImprovAcadia and she hopes to visit next summer. (Also - Amanda played a big part in our Fire Fighting and Water Survival so more on her later!)

By that evening, I knew I was in trouble but I went to play games for a bit. The two casts got together and played Pit & Uno. It was fun but I was still in bed by 10:30pm.
After I neti’ed again....always the neti!

We had the next day off and we were in Kona. Kona is probably the cutest port we go to. All of the ports are beautiful but many of them we port in a very industrial area....in Kona we tender so when we get off we’re right there in the cute beach and shop area. Kona has a great boardwalk and the ocean is right there. We got coffee with Robin and then we walked to meet Jeff, Jeannie, Brett and Chris at the Marriott tennis courts. After that we all walked around the gorgeous grounds of the Marriott and then got lunch at Quinn’s by the Sea. Jeff wanted us to try Ono which is a local fish. We all had Ono fish and chips which was delicious but very rich.

We returned to the ship to study for what was to be our largest and most important test on Thursday. We met to study for our Fire Test - we’d all been studying on our own all week with our Fire Booklets from Piney Point, MD. We quizzed one another and we all felt that we were ready for the test.

The next day we attended Basic Fire Fighting training taught by Barry. Barry was great - like Stu - he was informative, funny and smart. He really did a great job of teaching us the material. He would teach a chapter from the book then he would quiz the entire class. The class at this point was getting pretty friendly with one another. We were in a class of 16 people from several different departments. We had fun screaming out the answers to the test.

We took the test. There were three different tests passed out so the person sitting next to you had a different test from you. The tests consist of 60 multi-choice questions and are culled by the Coast Guard from 3000 questions. The Second City cast, Deanna, Rance, Mike, Piero, Larrance and myselft, had studied very hard but the test was difficult and there were several questions that had not been directly addressed in class or in the booklet. Why would they do that? Well, if anyone in the class gets a 100 on the Fire Test they have to throw out the test. So there were a few questions that were real stumpers. Everyone in our cast did well but......Rance and I both got 100’s!!!!! Woooo! Barry was thrilled even though he had to throw that test out.

The next day we had to be in class by 6:30am to learn about PSSR (Personal safety and social responsibility). This class was taught by Don and he was an ex-Navy man who’s now a security guard and part time Merchant Marine trainer. We watched a lot of videos about ship wrecks (including the Oceanos in which the entertainers saved everyone after the crew abandoned the ship). Then Don lectured about life boats, life rafts, water survival and how to keep morale up in a life raft. Then we took a test which we all passed. And we were done!........No, not quite.

The next day was our practical exam at Barber’s point.....

We got up before sunrise and headed up to the Aloha Café to have a carby breakfast. We watched the sunrise over Honolulu and then we got on a bus to Barber’s Point. The testing facility was about 45 minutes away so we had a nice drive through Honolulu. Upon arriving we went in and met Amanda who briefed us on what we were going to be doing. The morning was devoted to fire fighting and the afternoon would be water survival. We went outside to a container - the kind that you would see on a ship - and we were given our fire fighting gear. We got helmets, coats, pants with suspenders, boots, hood and gloves. The boots were very heavy - they were steel toed with a metal shank that ran down the length of the foot. The coat and pants were like 35 pounds together and the helmet was more comfortable than you would think. We proceeded to take our gear inside. They let us look it over and put it on. Then we took it off and were told we would at some point be tested on putting it on. I set my pants up the way I’d seen them in the fire lockers onboard the ship. Then the alarm sounded! Amanda told us we had 60 seconds to put all of our gear on - I objected because I was told we’d have 90 in doing so I wasted precious seconds. I managed to get everything on in just over a minute. Although my coat was crooked.....but I’d gotten everything on.

Then we were divided into teams of six. I ended up on a team with Deanna & Piero while Larrance was on a team with Rance.

So my team consisted of:
Deanna, Piero - both Second City
Wendy, Bar Staff - can’t swim
Miles, Bar Staff - super tall and kind of quiet
Eben, Bar Staff - quiet

It was a good team.

First up was fire fighting rehearsal! Barry ran us through how to handle a fire hose, how to command a fire team, how to handle the hose, how to follow a fire team leader and how to provide support. We had to wear all the gear except the SCBA (Self Contained Breathing Apparatus) and it was like 80 degrees F. and we were in direct sunlight. We didn’t fight a fire but we operated a live hose. We were handling a 1 1/2 inch hose with a Vari Nozzle that was pumping 95 GPM’s (Gallons per Minute). The nozzle was like 20 pounds and we had to operate the hose and command the team but there was no fire until later.
By the end, I was pink faced and sweating. Deanna joked that we should get to run through the fire hose. Barry said no but then he sprayed us with a low velocity fog as we walked back into the building. It felt great.

We then headed to SCBA donning and doffing training. Kind of boring but important. We got a look at an SCBA. Then we learned all important parts - how do you get air without blowing out your lungs (the air in the tank is at 220 ppsi), how to turn it on, how to use the bypass valve, how to change a tank and how to check your gauges (there are two). We tried on our masks. The masks were a bit freaky. You have to put it on and then put the regulator in and then you have to take sharp inward breath to activate your airflow. The mask feels close and you feel like you can’t breath but you can - it’s a good reminder to breath slowly.

Next up the zero visibility maze. The zero visibility maze is just what it sounds like. There’s no light and you have to find your way to the second floor exit. When you enter the maze you’re put into teams of three and told to keep your left hand on the wall and your right hand on the shoulder of the person in front of you. You are told to never lose contact with the wall or with the person in front of you. In the maze we wore our boots, pants, gloves and helmets. The helmets came in handy as I was bonked by an elbow, sat on by my leader and hit the wall with my head several times.

Deanna and I were put on a team with Miles. Miles is very tall. Deanna and I are around 5 ft with a few more inches. So we decided that Miles should be our leader. He was tallest and he might feel some parts of the wall that Deanna and I would never know were there. It was a good choice. He did a very good job although Deanna and I had to do most of the talking. He was quiet - we were chatty. Not chatty but communicative. We finished the maze in just under 8 minutes.

Larrance and Rance had Walter on their team. Walter’s from Puerto Rico. He’s very smiley and nice but in the zero visibility maze I guess he became confused and in his confusion he started to let go of Larrance and the wall. He also was having trouble remembering what English words meant. So Larrance had to coach him through the maze - example: Rance climbed up a ladder and lifted a hatch. Larrance went through next. You let go of each other for this but you follow your partner’s foot to the ladder and wait for the okay to come up. Walter had had a hold of the ladder but he let go and wandered off. So Larrance had to climb back down the ladder - get Walter and guide him up the ladder. Isn’t Larrance the best?

After everyone had done the maze and the SCBA lesson, we all got SCBA’s and went outside again. It was time to fight real fire! We got into teams of three again. Deanna, Miles and I staying together. It was a bit hard because Miles was so tall that the hose was in my armpit but to be honest my arms were like jello pops at this point. Amanda lit the fire and Barry was standing by in case we fell down or something like that. Then we proceeded to lay down a high velocity fog to protect our team, then we approached the fire and the back team member ran up and turned off the fuel. I was the first to go. I rocked it but I almost fell down when we were backing up. The hose is so strong that it pushes you back so you always have to push forward. Well we were walking back over a concrete block and I lost my footing a bit. My team took the weight and I recovered! Then I had to switch to the back and then the middle position and then I was done.

We were wearing the SCBA while were doing this. I thought my breathing was pretty controlled but when the fire would go out (it roared) I realized I was breathing quite hard and fast. So I would slow it down.....then it would creep up again. Fire fighting is super hard work. After that we had to support the other fire teams.

Then we had lunch. Lunch was a bit too long for me. I wanted to eat and then get back at it before my body decided it was time for bed. I was tired and somewhat sick. Actually my voice had gotten better but we had water survival so I knew that it would get worse......it did.

So we changed into our swimsuits and headed out to the pool. Everyone was issued a life jacket. We donned those and then we had to jump into the pool in the survival position (one arm over life jacker, one hand holding your nose shut, feet crossed and knees slightly bent). We had to jump into the water which was weirdly the scariest part for me. Amanda was right by the pool and I told her I was bit scared. She rolled her eyes at me and then I rolled my eyes at me too and jumped in. We had to swim to the other people and make a circle. Then we had to kick our legs to attract attention. I hated that part. It was easy but it hurt because you kept getting kicked but you better believe I would kick if I wanted to rescued.

Then we had a dry raft boarding....basically we climbed in from the side of the pool. Then we had to exit the raft by sitting on the side and falling over ( think like a Scuba entrance into the water). Easy.

Then we had to do a wet entrance which meant - jumping into the pool, swimming to the raft and then pulling yourself in. We had our life jackets on which I thought made it harder. I get why we had them on but--boo! Also my arms were at this point like little chicken noodles so I had a hard time with this. As I was trying and failing to climb into the raft, Barry jumped into the water to coach me and Amanda was also there. I wasn’t scared (they thought I was) but I was pissed at my noodle arms. I ended up getting there but it was hard and it hurt. I bruised my arms up pretty good. I wanted a second chance because Larrance told me I kept trying to pull up with just my right side. You’re supposed to cross - pull with your right arm and push with your left leg or vice versa. I eff’ed it up and I wanted a second chance to prove that I could save myself but after thinking about it I decided that I probably would be able to in a real emergency.

Next up was the Gumby suit. The Gumby suit is really called an exposure suit or some such. When you put it on, you look like a red gumby. We had to get them out and lay them out and put them on in less than 60 seconds. Then we were going to line up and jump into the pool one by one. So we all laid our suits out then Amanda blew the whistle. Everyone struggled to get into their suits. Larrance got into his in a flash and then surprisingly he jumped into the pool. Amanda was like - did he fall in? What are you doing? Larrance thought he was supposed to get the suit on and get in the water in under 60 seconds. When he realized his mistake, he sprang out of the water like a fish or a sprite and landed on the side of the pool in a standing position. It was funny. They were so impressed with his agility that instead of getting mad, they all congratulated him. Then we lined up and went into the pool one by one. The suits are one size fits all so I was swimming my suit - there was room for at least two of me - but Rance & Mike barely fit.

When you jump in the water in a Gumby suit, it suctions to you. It is the weirdest sensation. You can’t swim in them, you have to float on your back.

Then we just had to swim the length of the pool which was delightful after all of that. I wanted to stay in the pool for a bit but it was time to go back to the ship. We thanked Barry & Amanda and headed home.

I was tired, bruised and bumped but very happy to be done.

Oh, I was also a real Merchant Marine. Cue laughter!

~Jen

Next: GI Joes Assemble!

Before and then Just Before

2009-11-27T20:29:00.000-05:00

I’m a Merchant Marine!

Okay so we’ve been on the ship for two weeks. What’s been happening? Well, fire fighting, tests, water survival, visits, bits, shows and eating! I’ll break it down for you.

We left Maine around the end of October. I went to Omaha (ahead of Larrance) to visit my Mom, Ray, my Brother and his family. My Mom and I went shopping and had a great Mother/Daughter visit. Larrance joined us in time for Halloween. We had Halloween at my Brother Dan’s house. He and Dorthy (his wife) made incredible veggie chili and chicken chili. Seriously, delicious. They get hundreds of kids for Halloween - their neighborhood is known as a great Halloweenin’ spot. So we handed out candy to lots of Zombie princesses/doctors/lawyers/ninja (a lot of Zombies), a fair amount of straight up princesses, ninjas, one scary kid sniper and lots of witches. My favorite was one little girl who was dressed up as the Queen of the Night (not Mozart but more Witchy). We had a great time.

One bad thing happened - on Halloween morning my Mom took us to get Chocolate Croissants from the Bread Oven in Omaha (go there!). While we were driving there, we heard a loud pop and suddenly my Mom’s car sounded like a drag racing jalopy. We knew there was a serious problem so we pulled into Bucky’s on Dodge and had them take a look. While we were waiting I realized we were by a truck that had hit a deer the night before. So I was eating a Chocolate crossiant next to a fur and blood spattered truck. Omaha! Turns out that my Mom’s car’s exhaust system had cracked....they fixed it a few days later and all was well.

We ended our visit with a family dinner on Sunday. We made a delicious feast and played games. A great way to finish our visit.

After Omaha, we went to St. Louis to visit my Dad, Mary, Michele & Jay and their girls Isabel and Sophie. My Dad just retired so he had lots of free time which was great. We went out to the Indian burial mounds just east of St. Louis. I can’t remember the name - Kahokia? - anyone? They were cool but the museum was closed which was not cool. We walked around and looked at the mounds, the birds and one very large snake.

Mary offered to make us an early Thanksgiving dinner which was lovely. We had turkey, stuffing, potatoes, green beans and gingerbread cake with warm vanilla sauce. It was incredible. So good!

We also went with my Dad and Mary as they purchased their first Mac! They were excited. I thought we were going to look but my Dad informed me that, “I don’t shop, I buy!” Hilarious. There was a Lush store next to the Apple store so we went in there too - Mary had never been! So we had a good time smelling everything and Mary got a Hand Facial or would it be a Hacial or a Faciand? Dunno.

We finished our trip by spending the last night with Dad, Mary, Michele, Jay, Sophie and Isabel. We went to Pi to have the same pizza that Obama did.....excellent pizza. Then we went back to Michele and Jay’s house. I was lured into the backyard by Sophie and Isabel to see their new trampoline. Of course, I had to go on it! With a belly full of pizza and a trampoline full of fall leaves, we all jumped up and down and up and down. The leaves were very slippery and it was night so it was even more fun. Sophie and Isabel are my young and tiny nieces so it was fun to double jump the trampoline which made them fly out of control. We played - jump until everyone falls down, Isabel and Sophie lay down while Jen jumps, hold hands and jump until we fall down, and fall down. Then Larrance joined us. We jumped some more until my eyes were practically swollen shut with an allergic reaction. Try it! Actually, it was super fun times!

After that, we were off to Chicago. We got to Chicago and checked into our hotel and then we immediately went out to dinner with our friend Cheryl. Then went and saw 1,2,3 Fag at iO (ImprovOlympic) and then Baby Wants Candy at the Apollo. It was lovely. The shows were fun and the company was fantastic. We finished our evening by eating greasy diner food at 1am. Of course! Bleh.

The next day we started holding auditions for ImprovAcadia. We usually hold auditions in the Spring but this year our ship contract goes too late into the spring so we had to do them now. We rented The Playground theater and it was a great space for our auditions. We saw some great people and had some laughs. Good job, Chicago.

After our auditions were over, we moved to our housing for the week. We were sharing an apartment with our castmate Mike Kosinski. The apartment was lovely on the surface but while we were there, this happened: We found two windows that wouldn’t shut at the top, the heat only came on from 1am to about 5am, the shower curtain rod fell down, our sheets were dirty, the fridge was at best lukewarm and the internet wouldn’t work ever.........it was a very cute though.

We had a busy week. Show rehearsals, many dinners with friends, a night out at Guthrie’s bar, Bad Touch at the Annoyance and seeing lots of shows. We got to see so many people, some of whom we hadn’t seen in years. It was very fun but kind of tiring. But very fun!

We left on Nov. 14th for Hawai’i. We flew on United. It was a 9 hour flight. United served no complimentary food on the flight. We could get water or soda or juice but no complimentary food. We could buy sandwiches for $9. We had purchased snacks but we made a fatal purchasing error. We only bought power bars which are sweet. We were so sick of sweet at like hour 5 that we broke down and purchased 2 sandwiches. Were they worth $18? No. Oh, well. We were on per diem so we just chalked it up to a lesson learned. Next time, I’ll bring my own damn sandwich.

We landed in Honolulu around 3:15pm. We got our luggage which was an embarrassing amount. We filled the back of van. Filled. It. We headed to the ship and we were greeted by Jeff, Jeannie & Brett! All of them have been up to ImprovAcadia many times. It was lovely to see them. We got onto the ship and so began our Merchant Marine training......

~J

Our trip via the stomach

2009-04-18T11:16:00.005-05:00

One of our many cappuccino - this one in Civitavecchia. Also - I was making the running order for our first improv show.

The best olives ever in Malaga....the wine was good too.

More great food in Malaga...

Corsica!

Orange trees were everywhere in Malaga.

Open air market on Corsica

The BEST Mushroom quiche/tart. So good that Larrance made the face...

Rance is coveting my gnocchi in Florence. I didn't let him have any thus I look away and continue to eat.

Nice, France. Sandwich on the French Rivera and the face.

Weird statues in Nice. I think they light up at night. Or they levitate.....

Telling it with Pictures....more to come after this

2009-04-11T10:23:00.008-05:00

Lunch in Lucca

Beth, Deanna and Rance at Lunch in Lucca

Roman amphitheater and octopus in Malaga, Spain

The Colliseum

The Colliseum

Street Tuffs at Park Güell, Barcelona

Larrance at Park Güell

Il Duomo, Florence
Top of La Pedrera, Barcelona

Pisa

Rome
Malta
My step sister, Michele, and her husband, Jay at Herculaneum

Lunch with Mike in Barcelona (alt. title - grumpy jen turns happy after pizza and wine infusion)

The cast (Larrance behind camera) on Piazza Navona, Rome

More Piano on the Ship

2009-03-21T10:23:00.002-05:00

Here's a suite of pieces I created in the wee hours of my time on the NCL Gem including the Rhapsody previously linked. That's it for my ship blogging for now---Larrance

Rhapsody

March

Andante

Scherzo

Homage to Spain

Rondo

Chorale

Some midnight ship musings

2009-03-14T22:52:00.011-05:00

Jen and I have been back on land for almost two weeks. We've been traveling, visiting family, friends, and holding auditions in Chicago for our sixth season. We'll be home in a few days.

I spent a lot of time on the ship playing the piano in the middle of the night. It's a really good grand piano. I recorded a lot of it and will be uploading them as I get time and fast internet connections.

Here's one 16 minute long rhapsody I improvised on December 30th, 2008. Sometimes you can hear the ocean in the background.

rhapsody

Enjoy,
Larrance

Saltfish Days

2009-02-06T18:45:00.001-05:00

These cruises are so long or at least they seem long. We’ve been enjoying the excellent ports. Doing a bit of everything - swimming, snorkeling, a little sun, eating, drinking and some aimless wandering.

As I mentioned in my last post, Mike Shreeman decided to leave the ship and we got a new cast member, Ryan Archibald. We rehearsed Ryan into the Stardust show last week. He came very well-prepared and ready to go. His happy demeanor and his obvious desire to be here have been a real breath of fresh air. He did a great job in our Stardust show - funny, sweet and completely charming.

It was Deanna’s Birthday this month. We had a Birthday party for her on her day - we went to a beach (swimming & lunch) then back onboard we went to Jane’s show and then to dinner.

On the ship, the Crew Welfare department throws a party for all of the January babies. So Deanna got an invite to the party and it said she should bring friends so she brought all of us. It was great! Olive, The Crew Welfare Department, organized a great party. A huge spread of food (including these great Philipine sweet rolls), free beer/wine/soda, games with prizes and,of course, cake!

At one point Rance left to go to the restroom, the rest of the cast ended up playing a game called “Dribble, Exhibition, Dance, Shoot.” We were one team with the addition of Joel, former Asst. Cruise Director now Cruise Staff. Basically you get a blown up balloon and you have to listen to the caller and either Dribble, Exhibition...you get it...until she says pass then you give it to the next person. They do the same and you continue until she says Shoot - then you have to sit on the balloon and pop it. Ridiculous fun. Our team won and we all got NCL shirts made of perspiration wicking material! Rance was super jealous of our shirts so he entered into the next game of Musical Chairs....

This wasn’t just any Musical Chairs. There were 6 guys and 7 women playing. The women walked on the inside circle and the guys walked on the outside. When the music stopped the guys had to sit down and the women had to sit in their laps. Yes, that’s right. I’ve never seen so many adults turn into 12 year olds. Everyone was giggling as they had to either sit or be sat on. Rance was super competitive and he has really long legs so he won. He won a normal NCL shirt and a beach towel. Nice work!

We did some snorkeling on St. Thomas. We went to Secret Harbor. We went there two cruises ago but didn’t snorkel. It’s a nice quiet beach with a restaurant and as it turns out some pretty good snorkeling. We saw a barracuda, a flying gurnard, a spiny lobster and a sand diver. Don’t know what these are? Look it up! After snorkeling we drank some rum and had lunch. A great day.

We had a full ship this week but there was a special group onboard. They were a group that brought on 4 different Caribbean/Soca/R&B/Jazz acts. We missed the first one - Calypso Rose - but we got to see the other four - The Might Sparrow, Bill Saxton & Radam Schwartz and Madame Pat Tandy. They were all great. We found out about the group because our cabin neighbors, Jane L. Powell and JJ Jackson, told us. Jane, The Chocolate Goddess of Love, is a performer onboard and JJ is her husband and her drummer. The Mighty Sparrow was vibrant, lively and super dirty. Bill & Radam were very jazzy and for me the least accessible. Madame Pat Tandy was elegant, dynamic and dirty. We bought cd’s from Calypso Rose & the Sparrow.

The party was great and we look forward to the Feb. edition. Why? Because my birthday is on Feb. 28th so I hope they’ll have the party before we leave. We only have 21 days left in this contract.

When we leave the ship, we’re going to visit family and hold auditions in Chicago. Then back home to teach at COA and get ready for the sixth season of ImprovAcadia. We’ll be very happy to be back home in Ellsworth!

~Jen

Coffee with alcohol and snorkeling...

2009-01-24T15:03:00.001-05:00

We’re in the middle of our second 10 day eastern caribbean cruise. We visit five great ports - St. Thomas, Antigua, Barbados, St. Martin (Maarten) and Tortola. This is a great itinerary and we’ve been enjoying all the great ports.

My Mom and her husband, Ray, came on our first 10 day cruise. We had a very excellent time. We started our cruise with 2 sea days. My mom asked if we could go to some of the gemology talks. We went to the one on emeralds and got a free raw emerald (a small chip worth little but I had fun telling people that I was rich now). My Mom entered a raffle to win a necklace, earrings and bracelet of emeralds in matrix/stone. She won! It was very exciting. She took to calling the set “her luck” and wore them a few times on the cruise.

Ray met some fellow Vietnam Vets and some other fellow football fans. So he split his time between us and his new ship friends. He had a great time swimming and chatting up everyone.

My Mom and I spent a lot of time together but we usually took a little break in the late afternoon to early evening. We started a little tradition of meeting at 5pm for coffee in the Crystal Atrium. At first we just had regular coffee but then we discovered the Cafe Menu....a little booklet of alcoholic coffee drinks....!!! We didn’t have one everyday but we could’ve - they were delicious.

I’ve been looking forward to their visit since we signed on in October. We haven’t had 10 days of vacation together since I was in College. I did take care of her when she had her knee replaced but you can’t really count that as vacation time together. I mean she was unconscious for large parts of it and in a fair amount of pain. We did have some nice moments - we went shopping, ate Amigos fried bean burritos, had some late night chats and had general hang time which we hadn’t had since I’d moved away from home. This was different as it was all just leisure time.

My Mom tried snorkeling again. Ray got bit by a crab. We ate bbq in Grand Case, St. Martin. We fed an iguana in St. Thomas and drank rum drinks. Ray went golfing and met a nice Aussie family. My Mom tried a lime squash and proclaimed it delicious!

This week it’s been quiet without them here. We didn’t go swimming on St. Thomas but chose instead to wander around Charlotte Amalie. We walked from the port to the downtown area about 2.5 miles. We found a shortcut on the way home that cut it down considerably. We wandered around looking at shops and chatting. Basically we spent the day drinking coffee, eating belgium chocolates, trying a local patte and finishing with a rum and coke at a bar that reminded me of the Tropics in Omaha.

It was Deanna’s birthday on Antigua day so she chose the day. She wanted to go to a beach and she had the good fortune to meet Abe, the taxi driver. Abe said we should go to Valley Church beach. It was wonderful. There was hardly anyone there and the water was blue and the sand was like suede. The beach was covered in all kinds of shells - whole shells, no crushed or partial shells. I collected several of them. We played frisbee, collected shells and had lunch. I tried the coconut shrimp and it was amazing. Deanna and I also drank a special that the bartender whipped up - it consisted of fresh banana, coconut and rum.

Today we were in Barbados. Larrance and I decided to have an easy day of it. We got up late and walked into town. There are gardens right outside of the cruise ship terminal area and we walk through them when we walk into town. We stopped on this little bridge to look at the crabs and we spotted an Emerald hummingbird. I tried to get a pic but it was being super difficult. So we walked on to town and made our way to a simple free local beach. There are no amenities but the water is right there and so clean. We took a quick dip. I have a bit of sunburn from our time on Antigua - all these early beach mornings!- so we didn’t spend long. We decided to walk back to the ship and on the way back we saw a sea turtle. We were on the bridge that crosses the marina back towards downtown. I saw something large floating in the water and wondered what it was. I looked down to realize it was a loggerhead turtle! We watched it surface and dive for a bit and then walked back to the ship.

We found out at the beginning of this cruise that one of our cast mates, Mike, is leaving at the end of this cruise. He’s in love and his gal isn’t on the ship. So he’s decided to cut his contract short by one month. I think our last day hanging out as a cast was probably the day in Antigua. It’s been a very strange week. Kind of exhausting but also there’s a sense of giving up. We’ve been trying to cheer him, support him or advise him but that’s all over. He’s made his decision. I can’t say that I’m happy about it but I hope he’ll be happy in Detroit.

We were ported with the Dawn in Tortola today. This meant that we got to see our friends Jeff & Jeannie from the Second City cast on that ship. We went to the Midtown Cafe and had banana pancakes. They were delicious. We were joined by two of Jeff & Jeannie’s cast mates - Tim Paul & Joe LaTessa - we had a lot of ship gossip and stories. Fun.

I have to balance fun with some prep work for the theater. We’re beginning the casting process which will take from about now to the middle of April. I’m going to try to get less stressed about it. At home I usually check my e-mail first thing in the morning, I’ve decided not to do that this year. This year I won’t check it until 2 or 3 pm. That’s what I do on the ship most days and it is delightful.

We’re off to NY. We’ll do a one night booze cruise and then Mike will sign-off. Ryan will sign-on and we’ll begin rehearsing that night. We have just less than 5 weeks left! We hope to get in some more snorkeling and other carib adventures.

I look forward to: seeing family and friends, drinking good coffee, no passengers, no bingo, good food, and maybe a little snow. I’m probably most excited to cook again. If I am coming to your house, let me cook for you!

~Jen

Larrance here to add my exciting news: The ship has a resident String Quartet from Poland and I’ve befriended them and they’re going to read my new String Quartet that I’m almost finished composing (only the last movement is unfinished and I hope to finish it before we leave the ship).

This is a great opportunity for me to hear and work with this very talented group of musicians.

That’s it.

Larrance

A photo for Marilee

2009-01-21T09:59:00.003-05:00

Hi - I'm preparing a post but I have free internet today so I thought I'd post a photo....really it's for all of you but Marilee loves to see the blue waters of the Caribbean so....here it is!

Bonus photo!

2008-12-31T12:57:00.001-05:00

A Rare Find

2008-12-31T12:53:00.002-05:00

I hope I don't sound like a broken record...

So we haven’t done much snorkeling on this itinerary....we just haven’t been that inspired and it’s been very windy which isn’t great for snorkeling. We have gone swimming a few times and it’s been lovely.

Yesterday we were at Great Stirrup Cay which is the NCL private island. We decided that it was time to try out our new snorkeling gear. So we packed up and took the tender over to the island.

When we got there we walked to the quieter of the two beaches. We found out that we had to wear a life vest which was a super bummer and it chaffed Larrance’s nipples. My nipples were safe because I was wearing a swimsuit top....Larrance goes *gasp* topless. He has no shame.

So the snorkeling was okay. The reef around the island has taken a lot of damage so we were just test driving our gear and enjoying the water. When what do I see but a medium sized very exotic fish just hanging out next to a rock. I swim over to it and realize that it’s a Lion Fish. Now, Lion Fish aren’t supposed to be in the Caribbean so I thought I was wrong until I check out our World Book. According to the World Book, the Lion Fish recently has moved into the Caribbean waters from the Indo-Pacific. Most likely they were dumped there by someone with tank who didn’t want it anymore. ANYWAY, there it was just hanging out in all of it’s spiney glory. As you may know, they can deliver quite a painful sting so we kept our distance. Enjoy the photos.....

We swam around some more and saw a rather large welk shell. Larrance dove down to take a look. The dive was deeper than he thought and his ear plug went way into his ear.

Finally, we saw a Southern Sting Ray. The ray was swimming on the bottom but the weird thing was that a fish (a spotted goat fish) was hanging out right on top of it. As the ray swam through the water, it would disturb the sand and as it did the goat fish would dart forward now and then to eat something....little fish I assume. It was great to watch.

We were in the water about 40 minutes or so. Our gear was great. The masks were clear, comfortable and they didn’t leave those awful mask marks. It was a very wavy day and we didn’t get any water in our new snorkels. Yay!

Today is New Year’s Eve. We have a show tonight. Then there’s the ringing of the New Year complete with fireworks (courtesy of the Atlantis) and then a crew party. Should be lots o’ fun....

Next cruise is a one day “cruise to nowhere” around the NY harbor. We’re doing a late show that night. Then my mom & Ray are onboard for our first 10 day carribbean cruise!

Christmas Surprises

2008-12-29T13:41:00.000-05:00

Hello,

It’s been a bit since my last entry. I have to say that this itinerary has been a real let down after Europe. But it’s also been a let down in terms of weather, we’ve only been swimming twice. It’s been super windy and fairly chilly. Now, I know that I have nothing to complain about on the weather front what with the conditions in the rest of the country but I’m complaining anyway so there.

I had worse holiday blues this year than previous contracts. Or at least it felt worse. I missed being with my family and was worried that the holidays were going to be very depressing. Maybe it was my low expectations but Christmas was great....

The cast exchanged Secret Santa names about 6 weeks ago. I had Rance. He’s very hard to buy for but he gave me a detailed list and I mostly stuck to that. I got him a timex watch w/ a velcro band, a workout book, a six pack of Mug root beer and a reindeer tongue lollipop. I think he loved the lollipop best. Basically it was a plastic drum shaped reindeer head with a candy lollipop shaped like a deer’s tongue that you push out to suck on. So Rance got to french kiss a reindeer for Christmas....and that was actually on his list.

We had a bit of a surprise on this last cruise. We popped into the dance show one night and we looked over to see an older couple. I felt like I recognized the man. As I stared I realized that he’d been a student of mine at the Schoodic Arts Festival - I knew him. So we chatted with him and his wife and later in the cruise we had dinner with them. It kind of felt like we had family onboard even though we didn’t....it was nice to have dinner with someone not from the ship. No offense to any of my shipmates but having dinner with a “land person” gave me a sense of normalcy that I’d been lacking.

I had a funny feeling today. At the end of our season at ImprovAcadia, I frequently feel tired and not very creatively ambitious. I might do a bit of knitting or even drawing but I kind of go fallow. I know that I’m still doing shows and yes, they require creativity but not on the scale of my summer schedule. So I’ve been waiting to feel like I have a surplus o’ creativity. Today I started to get the feeling that the fallow period is coming to an end - I am filled with nitrogen!

We’re about to change itineraries which I’m really looking forward to. We have one more week of the Bahamas and then we go to four 10 day Caribbean cruises. We have a great itinerary - NYC, 2 sea days, St. Thomas, Barbados, Antigua, St. Maarten, Tortola, and 2 sea days. There should be lots of good snorkeling on all of those islands. I’ve never been to St. Maarten and I’ve only been to St. Thomas once.
I hope to get over to St. John’s and see the National Park. Larrance and I bought new masks and snorkels this year. Our masks are super fancy - they have glass that goes around the side so we have better peripheral vision. I need to try it out!

Check out my flickr site - I put up more photos.

Yeah. Uh-huh. Bieeeeee!

~Jen

Bahamas & Dangerous Breakfasts

2008-12-16T12:57:00.000-05:00

Hey!

Well, we’re on our third Bahamas cruise. Our itinerary is as follows: NYC (home port), Sea Day, Port Canaveral, Great Stirrup Cay, Nassau (New Providence Island), Freeport (Grand Bahamas) and then a Sea Day and back to NYC.

We’ve had three port days in NYC and they’ve all been great. It’s really lovely to be in NYC during the Christmas season. Everything is decked out in holiday decorations and the teeming city is even more teeming. We’ve mostly just wandered on our New York days. The first day we walked around Mid-Manhattan (the ship ports at 48th & 12th) and went to Whole Foods. The next time we walked to Time Square, then to Bryant Park, then 30 Rock, then the Public Library and back. We’ve been sampling various pizza places and doing a bit of shopping but mostly it’s just been about walking around the city. This last NYC they wouldn’t let us off the ship until 12:30 (we ported at 9:15am) so we just took a short jaunt to find some of our secret santa presents. Then back....

Tomorrow a few of us are headed to Islands of Adventure which is near Disney World. Normally on Port Canaveral day, we run errands and get some internet time. I’ve been using that day to post lots of photos to the blog. Port Canaveral is a very useful stop and we’re looking forward to going to Cocoa Beach.

The next day we port at Nassau. The town of Nassau is a fairly large city (250,000) and it has a nice shopping and restaurant district. You can also walk along the ocean front. I must say that everything is super expensive in Nassau. There’s a famous Greek restaurant on Bay Street, run by a Greek!, and we stopped there for some Gyros and a beer and it cost us $50. We weren’t ripped off - the food was delicious - but Nassau is pricey.

Paradise island is attached by a bridge to New Providence and the Atlantis Casino/hotel/shopping mall/ nature center/man made beach/aquarium is located on Paradise. We went there last week to look at the free part of the aquarium. It’s really amazing - they have two HUGE Manta Rays, a nurse shark, a sting ray and lots of fish - and that’s just the free part. To see the rest of the aquarium cost 30 buck so I’m not sure we’ll pop for that. There is a water park on Paradise Island and from what I understand there’s a water slide that goes through the shark tank. Obviously you’re enclosed in a tube....or at least I hope so.

We went to Cabbage beach on Paradise. It’s a public beach and it’s really very nice. It’s on the exposed Atlantic side so there’s some big waves but the beach is long and large. We enjoyed our first dip in the ocean and got pushed around a bit by the big waves.

Freeport is not such a great port. I’m sure the island it lovely but we’re only there until 1pm. We get there at 7am and I just can’t see getting up early to go to the beach. Also it’s hard to get a cab to take you anywhere but the “ship approved” shopping/beach stop. I’ve never experienced this before but the dispatcher will only get you a cab to this one area. They tell you it’s downtown Freeport but it’s a duty free shopping area and casino. Boo. And it’s a 20 minute/$5 cab ride....so double boo.

We’ve been enjoying a slower pace on this part of our contract. A little more sleep, spending less money and drinking less coffee.

The passenger profiles have changed a lot. In Europe, the passengers were pretty polite, fairly reserved and calm. Porting out of NYC, the passengers are still nice but they’re not as polite, far from reserved and you have to watch your fingers in the buffet. I must say that they make for great audiences - very responsive, and since they’re mostly from NYC, super hip to what we’re doing. We’ve really seen the difference in our improv shows - they’re so educated that they’re with us from the first game. It’s nice.

Still, breakfast on these cruises is a horror show. You come up to the Garden Cafe and they’re swarming like a pack of killer bees or pirana. They hover and they stare until they decide to swoop in and take everything. If you’re too slow, they buzz around you and nibble at your elbow. They eat massive amounts of everything. Lunch is the same as breakfast. I haven’t even set foot in the Chocolate buffet.

We’re getting ready for Christmas on the ship. The cast did a Secret Santa drawing. I’ve already completed my Secret Santa present. Larrance did half of his yesterday. Tomorrow Larrance is going to ship some packages to my family. So we’re almost ready....now if we could just ship ourselves home.

~Jen

Uh...

2008-12-08T14:59:00.002-05:00

Okay so the link to my photos isn't a clickable link. So....copy and paste into browser window and go see photos. I'll post more next time. I have like 653 and I've posted about 40.

~Jen

Photos...

2008-12-08T13:59:00.001-05:00

Hey,

I've had to use Flickr to post my photos. Here's the link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/24686119@N02/?saved=1

You might have to join Flickr but it's easy! So do it and look at my photos...

Jen

Cappuccino, Cappuccino, Croissant......

2008-12-04T16:06:00.000-05:00

We just finished our transatlantic crossing and are enjoying the first day of our new Bahamas run.

What happened in our final days in Europe and on the crossing? Well, I’ll tell you.

Our itinerary was as follows:
Barcelona
Villefranche
Florence
Rome
Corsica
Sea day
Malaga, Spain
Sea day
Sea day
Sea day
Sea day
Sea day
Sea day
NYC

Our final day in Barcelona, Rance, Deanna, Larrance and I decided to go and see Anton Gaudi’s La Pederera and Park Güell. They were both amazing. La Pederera is an apartment building that’s still inhabited, the roof of which is dotted with several sculptures. The whole building if filled with Monet-like murals, organic sculptures and accents (hand rails and such), and two courtyards. On the top floor, there’s a museum all about Gaudi’s works.

In the museum, I saw a film about one of his buildings Casa Batallo. We didn’t see it this time...I look forward to seeing it when we come back next year!

After we finished at La Pederera, we had to stop for coffee and a repast. We picked a local place and had spanish omelette and cappuccino's. Very good. Deanna went to a place next to the place we went and came back with some quiche and a really good looking Chocolate croissant. She let me try it and we ended up getting our own. It was so different from the croissants in France. It was heavier with richer chocolate....it was very good. Very good. It gave us the necessary fuel to tackle Park Güell.

We took the local subway (Metro) system to a stop near the Park. The subways in Barcelona are pretty great. Instead of being several cars with doors in between, they are joined by smaller connector cars. So you can look from the back all the way to the front and as the train travels through all the twists and turns you can just watch the train move. Also there’s a map of the train over the door and as you come to the stop it lights up....AND there’s a camera that shows you the train as it pulls up....it was very easy to navigate their train system.

The walk to Park Güell was long but well worth it. Park Güell was a commissioned work for a textiles baron who wanted to have Gaudi design a community for his workers. Ultimately, the community didn’t work out but the Park still exists today. The Park is enormous and filled with sculptural bridges, a plaza, and several buildings. The front entrance to the Park is based on Greek Temples and features lots of mosaics which are inspired by sea creatures and other natural items. The park is filled with outdoor merchants and tons of live music.

Our favorite act was a combo of a living statue mixed with one part Carlos Gardel and one part Edith Piaf. It was a man and a woman. They were standing up on a bench - he had a guitar and was in a suit and a fedora, she was in a red coat and heels and cloche type hat. They would be frozen until money was put down then he would play guitar and she would dance and sing in French. We were enchanted by them.

The next day we were in Villefranche again so we decided to take the bus to Nice. The bus ride was easy and quick. We wandered Nice with Rance and Deanna. We had a day with no particular agenda and yet we managed to see the Old section of town, the open air flea market, several churches and plazas. We also drank cappuccinos, ate baguettes on the beach and crepes outside the bus station. It was a great day!

As always, Florence was a big day. Rance, Deanna and we decided to go to the Uffizi to see everything. We got to Florence after about an hour and half train ride. We knew we had to....stop for coffee...what am I going to do in the US? We found this great place that had leather seated chairs, marble tables and great coffee. We enjoyed the food and headed off to the Uffizi. We go there and once again we didn’t have to wait in line or even deal with any big groups. The museum was busy but by no mean crowded. Larrance and I bought a “Official guide to the Uffizi” and it was well worth it. It gave us lots of great info about what we were seeing. Rance and Deanna also had a list from a passenger’s son who’s an art student about the 15 works to make sure you see. So we headed in and started looking at art.....it was really exciting to see a lot of the works that I’ve studied in various classes. My favorite room was the Botticelli room - in there we saw the Birth of Venus, Primavera and one I can’t remember the name of...it’s the portrait of a young florentine man. We also saw Carravaggio’s Medusa which was impressive. At some point we all hit our limit and we were ready to go, that is not an easy museum to get out of. I thought we were at the end and it turned out there were like 12 more galleries. Then we had to make it through the five room gift shop....ayiyiyiyiyiyi.

After the Uffizi, we had about 2 hours left in Florence. So we decided to go to a restaurant and really enjoy some Tuscan food and, of course, wine. We found a great place just behind the Uffizi and we feasted on Riboletto (a robust veggie soup), gnocchi, pasta, tomatoes and mozzarella, pesto and chianti. We way over-ordered - frankly the soup alone would have been enough for lunch - but undaunted we endeavored to eat everything. We didn’t manage but we made a respectable dent. After lunch, we had to get back to the train. I managed to make a quick stop to get a small Fig gelato - it was mercifully less than my gelato in Rome- onlys 2 euro and it was light and very delicious.

The next day, in Rome, we traveled with the entire cast plus one of the Youth Counselors, Kim. We got to Rome and headed to the Colosseum. They were shooting a movie at the Colosseum which was interesting to see. We had a good time trying to guess what the movie was and realizing that extras are really the same everywhere.

We decided to purchase a guided tour of the Colosseum and I was so glad we did. Our tour guide, Philomena, was very knowledgeable and her political views were on the left. Our tour started outside and I was worried we might have to wait in line but once again no line! We got in right away which was in part thanks to the tour. Once we were inside Philomena explained what we were seeing. Did you know that there was an elaborate set of elevators beneath the Coliseum arena? You did? Oh. Well, I didn’t. Yeah. After our tour was over, we split into two groups.

Mike, Larrance and I went off on our own to walk by the Forum and get some lunch. The rest of them finished the tour on the Palatine Hill. I saved it for next time.

Rome is super overwhelming and kind of confusing. Because it’s an old city it’s so far from a grid that it’s very easy to get lost. You’re always running into Piazza’s and little side streets that are not on the map...well, not on our map. So we found the Forum easily and it’s surrounded by other amazing archeological sites....one thing that I was struck by was how everything is built on the same spot over and over again. So you have a church which has obviously been built on an old “pagan” site.

Side note: Philomena told us that many of the sculptures that are in the Vatican and other sites in Rome were actually statues that were taken from the Coliseum and re-appropriated. They’ve been working to get these statues back. For example, there was a statue of a minor god who’s head was found on a statue in the Vatican and his body was found in a plaza somewhere. They reunited the head and body and the statue lived happily ever after.

We got lost several times in our efforts to find Nazionale street. It’s a big street but the path from the Forum to it were, uh, unclear. When we found it, we found a cash machine which was great because we were out of money and I was starving. I was so hungry that I was close to getting hangry. Not good. After we got money, we found a great pizzeria and had some incredible pizza and a beer. Yeah! I have no idea what I ordered, this happened to me a lot, but I got pizza with whole mushrooms and some kind of soft mellow cheese and parsley. We sat on the street and watched people walking by. We saw what was, I think, the smallest bus ever. Seriously it was a bus shaped van but it wasn’t a van. Maybe it was a Ban or a Vus...

Then we made our way back to the Train station to catch the 3:09. Which put us back in the port of Civitavecchia at about 4:40pm. So we had another coffee and pastry and did a bit of shopping...Apparently, it was lucky we got the 3:09 train because our cast mates took the 4:09 and barely got back in time. Civitavecchia is a beautiful port city and was hopping at sunset.

Next morning we woke up on the island of Corsica in the town of Ajaccio (Ah-jax-see-o). Ajaccio is a small sea side town with lots of boulangeries, pastisseries and an open air market. Larrance and I wandered the town on our own after COFFEEEEEEEEE.

We had caffe lattes across from the open air market. We watched the people and the passengers (almost like people!) walk by. We enjoyed our coffee and seeing the locals greet one another. Larrance managed to have a small chat with the owner of the coffee shop. After that we purchased some mushroom quiches and chocolate croissants from the boulangerie next door. We did not get far before we were eating our quiches.....they were amazing....I mean I have had quiche before but nothing like this. It was rich without being overwhelming and it was savory and flakey and buttery and mushroomy. AAHHHH, so good. We saved our croissants for later and made our way to the beach. The beach was on the other side of town which as it turns out was not far at all. We walked there and touched the Med on the French Rivera.

From there we tried to see the Museum (works that Napoleon stole during his exploits that his Uncle brought to Corsica), but it was closed for the season. At that point, I realized that we were standing in a French Bar Harbor. Closed for the season....yeah.

I did manage to find a French knitting store (they call it Tricoter!) and I bought some bamboo yarn. Yay!

We had a show that night so we wandered back to the ship early. I have to say that I really enjoyed performing for the Euro crowds. We only did one Stardust show (sketch show) because there wasn’t usually more than 1,000 English speakers onboard but they all loved the shows. I think that our shows are fairly unique for Europe. The audience absolutely loved the improv shows. The repo cruise was even better for us because there were more Americans/Brits/Canadians onboard. So our shows were well attended and well received.

We had a sea day which was a much needed rest.

Our final port before the actual crossing was Malaga, Spain. Wow. Malaga is great. It’s like a more relaxed Barcelona. It’s the birth place of Picasso so there’s a small but very nice Picasso museum there. There’s also the ruins of a Roman theater and some other ruins. Not to mention lots of shopping, restaurants, street performers and music.

Mike was signing off in Malaga so he could go home and visit his girlfriend. So our first order of business was to help him find the train station so he could catch the train to the airport. The train station was a bit further than we thought but we got to have a nice walk through the more local part of town. The train station itself was huge - part train station, part mall, part cafe. Mike had to find a locker so Larrance and I sat down and had coffee and croissants. How did I not gain like 20 pounds with all of this coffee and croissant action? Walking, walking, walking. We walked everywhere. After Mike dropped off his luggage we made our way back to the downtown area.

Malaga is filled with marble plazas, old buildings, lots of people and fountains. We walked around and found the Roman Theater. It was very well preserved and apparently still in use. While we were there, a group of children in costume were brought on to the stage and seemed to be preparing for a performance. Also there was a giant papier mache octopus over the trees next to the Roman theater...why? I don’t know but I loved it!

At that point, we parted company with Mike who made his way back to the train station. Larrance and I found the Picasso museum. In addition to the permanent Picasso exhibits there was a temporary Max Ernst exhibit. Both exhibits were great....

In the Picasso exhibit, they had a lot of his ceramics and his sculptural work. I saw some of his ceramics in Paris and while this might sound awful, I wasn’t impressed. I love his paintings and his sculpture but I thought his ceramics were so-so. I know, strike me dead! Maybe it’s because I grew up with a Potter/Sculptor for a Mom or I am a real jerk. You decide. Anyway, the ceramics in the Malaga museum were far more graceful and interesting. The vases, anyway, He had a bunch of platters and plates and I still thought those were “ehhh.” Jerk!

The Max Ernst was exhibit was really exciting. They had some of his sculptures, painting and lots of his illustrations done for publications. I’ve only seen a little of Ernst’s work before and I always liked them but I guess I had no idea of the breadth of his career.

After the museum, we were hungry. We knew that we wanted to eat some tapas and we knew that we wanted to eat in a “local” place. How does one find a local place? Get off the main drag, wander until you’re not sure where you are and look at the menus. Is there english on the menu? If so, no good. Keep going. We found a great place in what appeared to be an alley but we couldn’t get a table. We waited for like 10 minutes but no one was leaving and it appeared that 3 tables were just getting started. Reluctantly, we left and made our way back to one of town squares. Then we spotted an empty street passing several restaurants with english menus. We turned the corner and at the end of the street next to a building under construction we found it. You could just feel it - it pulled you. Walked to it and listened to the people sitting outside. No English. The menu was incomprehensible. Inside it was even better, piles of food being taken out, an open kitchen with a very busy chef and families and couples enjoying tapas. We took a seat at the bar and puzzled over the menu.

Now, we had limited euros and knowledge of Spanish. We were in the perfect situation for a real gustatory adventure. The waiter approached and we both realized at the same time that we were going to communicate using pointing, my broken Spanish and he bringing things and showing them to us. We wanted wine but he was of our first choice out so he showed us what he thought we should drink - we said okay. We stared at the menu and the chalkboard and I guessed at what things were. We tried to order things but they were out of things (maybe?) so we ordered Atun embollceido, Tomate and Pescado Bruschcheta.

While we waited we drank our red wine and we enjoyed the completely delicious olives. I’d seen them going out to the tables and I was trying to find them on the menu and I couldn’t find them. So then I was trying to figure out how I would ask for them...I knew we had to have them. Well, they were complimentary. Yay! They were lemony, garlicky and meaty all at once. They were perfect with the wine. Then we got our tuna which was in a lemon-olive-oil-onion mixture. Tomate turned out to be a huge plate of roughly sliced tomatoes in olive oil and salt n’ pepper. I am not a big fan of tomatoes on their own but I manned up and ate a bunch of them. I mean - we ordered it so I had to eat it.
Our final course was a fish skewer...we thought it was going to be a fish brushcetta but brushchetta in Spain means skewer...or does it? I’ll never know. I do know that our skewer was grilled and dressed with lemon juice and very good. It had salmon, squid, shrimp and more tuna (?). All in all it was a great way to end our last day in Europe.

I’m really going to miss being in such exciting ports but I’m sure we’ll save some money in the Bahamas.

The crossing was super fun. Larrance was involved in the “Bowling with the Stars” competition - he came in first place in the semi-finals but was defeated by another team and Neptune (God of the Sea) in the finals. Larrance thought he was just going to bowl for fun but he ended up with a partner who was super competitive and way too serious for his own good. But I think that Larrance had fun bowling......

The crossing started the next day with a very rough and rocky sea day. For the first time ever, I experienced sea sickness. I woke up feeling poorly - headache and generally blah. While I was in the bathroom and away from the window, I felt my stomach flip and kind of....quiver. I brushed it off and head to breakfast. We decided to sit outside where I could watch the horizon. Like and idiot I had a really weird assortment of food for breakfast but everything was making me feel kind of weird. I sat there and thought this is bad. Then I went to the office which is in the back middle of the ship - really rocky - I felt even worse. I went to our room and decided to get in bed. I was feeling worse by the minute. So Larrance, who was fine, offered to go to the Med Center and get me an Anti-emetic. He came back , I opened the package and instead of chewing it (suggested) I swallowed it. I sat there for about one second and then got up and.....got rid of breakfast. I felt better after, but wasted. I chewed one of the pills and passed out for about 2 hours. When I woke I felt completely spent but not sick....it was so awful.

The next rough day I was worried I’d get sick but I didn’t....not at all. Weird, huh?
I blame my one day sea sickness on withdrawal from European coffee and pastry.
Don’t tell me I’m wrong, just send pastry and cappuccinos!

Another phenomenon of the crossing was that it was super social. Passengers really got to know us because we did extra improv shows and workshops. So we couldn’t go anywhere without them stopping us to chat which was really nice....we met some really nice and interesting people and since we were crossing and not in port it was great to chat with them for a bit to a long bit.

Our first day in New York was short but lovely - in this order - we ate pizza, went shopping, went to Whole Foods and then back to the ship. Next week, we’ll have a bigger NYC adventure.

Whew. Big entry.
More photos to come on Monday!

xo,
Jen

P.S. Post some comments so we know you're reading!

Lunch in Lucca

2008-12-01T15:18:00.001-05:00

Lunch in Lucca
Originally uploaded by shepardjennifer34

Larrance and I at our lunch in Lucca, Italy. Beth, our Producer, took us to a wonderful lunch in a little Italian place. It was delicious.

French Lips in Villefranche

2008-12-01T15:16:00.001-05:00

French Lips in Villefranche
Originally uploaded by shepardjennifer34

I have a whole series of photos with Mike and Larrance making their "French" face. This photo is actually in France with the lips!

Barcelona - Constitution Plaza

2008-12-01T15:15:00.001-05:00

Barcelona - Constitution Plaza
Originally uploaded by shepardjennifer34

Larrance looking super handsome on Plaza de Constitution in Barcelona.

Origami in Barcelona

2008-12-01T15:14:00.001-05:00

Origami in Barcelona
Originally uploaded by shepardjennifer34

We wandered around Barcelona on our first day there. We walked a long way that day and in our wanderings we found these windows filled with origami bugs. Weird and great.

Approaching Pisa

2008-12-01T15:13:00.001-05:00

Approching Pisa
Originally uploaded by shepardjennifer34

This was our first view of the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Larrance and our tapas in Malaga

2008-12-01T15:12:00.001-05:00

Larrance and our tapas in Malaga
Originally uploaded by shepardjennifer34

This is the first a few photos I will post today...

When we were in Malaga, Spain, we got a little off the beaten path and found a great tapas place. No one spoke english and we had a great time finding out what exactly we'd ordered....

Flickr

2008-12-01T15:08:00.001-05:00

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Family & Florence Cruise

2008-11-24T08:07:00.002-05:00

Hey Everyone!

On our next to last cruise (aka the last full cruise before the repositioning cruise), my step sister & her husband visited. Their names are Michele & Jay.

The itinerary was the same as it has been for the last two weeks. We visited Malta on Tuesday. In Malta, we walked to Freedom Square and from there we walked to get coffee...of course! Then we decided to see the Palace. The Palace was very interesting. Lots of painted/frescoed ceilings and walls. Malta had lots of crusaders buried there so there were tons of family crests and portraits of knights. One of my favorite rooms was a room of tapestries of wildlife in South America. There were no photos allowed so I can’t show you but they were amazing and very well preserved.

After the palace, we decided to head to St. John’s Co-Cathedral . The outside was so very plain. The inside was AMAZING. The floor was made of hundreds of tombs of crusader knights. The ceiling was gold and painted and brilliant. There was a nave for each of the countries that were involved in the crusade. The naves were full of statuary, tombs, frescoes, paintings and more tombstones. The Cathedral also had two Carravaggio’s - The Beheading of St. John the Baptist and St. Jerome. They were both great. Bonus items were the illuminated chorale texts and the flemish tapestries. Really it was a great thing to see.

On Naples day, we set off for Herculaneum/Ercolano. Ercolano was destroyed in the explosion of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD but unlike Pompeii it was preserved under a layer of lava. The lava moved slowly and because it was somewhat “cooled” when it reached Ercolano lots of wood, fabric and paper was preserved. The site is not very big so it was easy to do it in a few hours. We saw lots of great mosaics, some masks and statuary. The site was practically empty which was also great. We got an audioguide and that gave us some additional info. Most of the people in Ercolano knew that the explosion had occurred so they fled to the beach where they thought they should be safe. And they were...until the giant flood of lava occurred. Yeah. Bad news.

Michele & Jay took tours in Rome & Florence. On Rome day we woke up to find out that there was a huge storm hanging over Italy. There was heavy rain, hail and at least 5 water funnels spotted on the ocean. A water funnel is basically a tornado pre-land. Needless to say, we didn’t go anywhere. Michele & Jay did get to go on the tour. Oddly, we ran into their tour in Florence by the Duomo. It was funny.

So we went to Florence as a cast. We got there pretty early. We took a quick break and then headed of to the Duomo. The Duomo was amazing. The outside is very intricate with the different colors of marble to create geometric patterns. It’s also covered with lots of statues. Across from the Duomo is the Bapistry. The Bapistry has these amazing doors that are covered in bronze (originally gold) and the door has 12 panels (?) on it. Michele told me that each panel represents one of the major stories from the Bible. I don’t know if you’ve heard of the Bible but the Italians love that thing!

While we were at the Duomo, Deanna encouraged us to climb the Cuppola. The Cuppola was designed by Bruneschelli - there were no visible supports - they’re all built inside. I can’t explain it but it’s amazing. It’s painted with frescoes of the progression from hell to heaven. The depiction of hell is horrific and very imaginative. Heaven is heaven - lovely, calm and beatific. Hell is crazy, gross, violent and awful. I have pictures.

The climb up was 486 steps. I got some great photos going up and from the top it was breath taking. We took lots of photos. Surprisingly the climb down was also 486 steps.

After that we went to the Academia to see Michelangelo’s David. November is a great month to travel. Usually there’s a long line to get in and you need to reserve a time slot with hundreds of people to crowd around David for the alloted 15 minutes.

We just walked right in and stayed as long as we wanted in a nearly empty hall.

David is spectacular as is the whole beautiful city of Florence.

The final day of the cruise, we just hung around and enjoyed Villefranche. We went to a local market in the town center and bought some jewelry, we ate some chocolate croissants, drank some cappuccinos, bought some postcards and drank some wine.

Now we’re off on our final Euro ports and then the crossing!

~Jen

captions

2008-11-13T09:25:00.001-05:00

Larrance with a statue of one of his "relatives" in Naples
Malta - city of Valletta
Mike, Michele, Me & Jay at Herculaneum.

Second attempt for photos - a few more

2008-11-13T09:03:00.002-05:00

Storms make for Internet Time

2008-11-13T08:57:00.003-05:00

Hey,

Today there was a terrible storm in Civitavecchia (port o' Rome) so we went to the internet place. I uploaded some photos but it was slow so they got uploaded in a somewhat haphazard manner.

Here's a list of what's there:

The Cathedral of Pisa - near the tower
A view of The Vatican & Rome from the bridge by Castle di Angelo
My 15 euro gelato
Tower of Pisa
Trevi Fountain - Rome - in the middle is Ocean, on the right is health and on the left fortune. I think....
Malta - slightly blurry but it took to long to upload so....yeah
Barcelona - Larrance reading the map on the Via de George Orwell
Barcelona - Constitution Plaza
Lucca - the wall and the tower
Lucca
L & J with cappuccinos

I tried to get a more photos but it didn't work. So more later....maybe later today....

2008-11-13T08:22:00.006-05:00

Week Two - Oh, my legs! 11/2 to 11/9

2008-11-12T11:47:00.002-05:00

Hey!

Last week was our first week “alone” on the ship. By “alone”, I mean without our producer, director and our producer’s assistant Monica. So there’s still the whole cast....

Here’s a quick breakdown of what we did each day:

Barcelona: We walked everywhere - the Gothic section, the old Roman section, a pastry shop and we found the Picasso museum.
Sea day: Not much. Sleep in, relax, gym and some Gloom.
Malta: We wandered to the city center. Lots of photos.
Naples: Archeological museum of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Pizza. Walked 4 miles.
Rome: We saw Vatican city, Castle of the Angel, Piazza Nuvona, Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Piazza di Coloumno and the Spanish Steps. Walked like 6 miles. Also gelato for 15 euro.
Pisa: The tower, the cathedral, a bit of the city and purple is the color of the year in purse form. Walked 4 miles?
Villefranche: handmade soap shop, cappuccino on the waterfront, we learn about the bus to Nice.

And now for some highlights....

It was raining in Barcelona so the first thing we did was get a cappuccino and a Spanish Omelette sandwich. We walked all of the La Rambla - taking in all the sites. From there we kind of just wandered all over the Gothic and the Roman sections of the city. In the Gothic section we heard some wonderful music - a soprano singer and an excellent spanish guitarist. They were both great and the setting - the gothic section - was just magical.

The day in Barcelona was about getting our bearings. We found the archeological museum and the Picasso museum but we didn’t go in. Instead we found a lovely piazza and got a glass of local wine and later we found a fantastic patisseria/bomberia called La Colmena and got some local pastry. The pastry is great and we went back again this week.

As I mentioned above we went to the Archeological museum in Naples. The museum wasn’t very well organized - everything was labeled in Italian (of course!) but the English labeling was very random. One cool thing was they were moving a rather large statue and working on some new rooms so we got to see that. We also managed to find the room of artifacts of.....sex. Yes. It was called the Secret Room and it was filled with ribald lanterns, paintings, beds and uh, statues. The statues were very....upright.

Naples is like the NYC of Italy. I mean there are people everywhere and scooters, taxi’s cars, construction and garbage. Still, it is an exciting city. The people aren’t overly friendly but we have noticed one phenomenon. We got lost twice. Both times a middle aged man, usually dressed nicely, stopped to help us. They went out of their way to give us directions - one man almost missing his bus to do so.

Rome was a great day and a long day. As you can see from the list above, we saw a lot of sites in one day. The whole day was amazing. My favorite site was definitely the Trevi Fountain. I’ve always liked fountains and this was a fountain on a grand scale.

I did have one mildly unfortunate event happen to me. We were close to the Spanish Steps and we decided that some gelato would be good. So we stopped in a shop and Brett got a cup of gelato that cost him 5 euro. I’d spied these good looking cones with dark chocolate on them and asked for one of those. The clerk told me it would be extra and I said okay. He proceed to create an enormous cone of gelato embellished with creme freche, cookies, caramel sauce, little cones, a mini paper umbrella and a purple sparkly thing. I thought, “oh, this is nice.” Then he gave me the price - 15 euro! 15. Euro. I had been suckered. I paid for it and luckily it was excellent. I did find out that this happened to some other passengers which made me feel a little bit better. I’ll post a photo of it later.

Pisa - what can I say - the tower was great! The cathedral by the tower was beautiful. They also had several great stalls that were selling purses. I walked away with a great purple handbag. The clerk told us that purple is the color of the year.....we thought she was pulling our wallets but now I’ve seen purple everywhere!

Villefranche was an easy day which is just what we needed after Italy.

This week my step sister, Michele, and her husband, Jay, are on board. We showed them around Malta and today we went to Herculaneum. What’s Herculaneum? Well, I’m glad you asked. It’s a city that like Pompeii was destroyed/covered by the explosion of Mt. Vesuvius. Instead of being covered by ash, Herculaneum was covered by lava. The lava was somewhat cooled (relatively speaking) so some wood, papyrus and clothing survived as well as a bunch of mosaics and sculptures.

But I’ll write more next week....

Larrance on Italia

2008-11-11T12:41:00.001-05:00

I'm pretty sure that many people that know me know that my favorite food of all time is pasta with tomato sauce. Well, I'm in Italy 3 days a week and am loving the pasta. Naples tomato sauce is lighter than Roman. Tuscan has more fresh tomatoes in it. At least from my few experiences. But it's all good with a glass of Chianti.

This European jaunt is all about history, streets, museums, cappuccino, pizza, pasta, chianti and a day in France and Spain as well for their delightful streets and treats.

Soon we cross the Atlantic and settle in New York for the Caribbean run. That's all about snorkeling and rum. I look forward to it but in the next two weeks that we have left in Europe I intend to see more museums, walk more streets and eat a lot more pasta and wash it down with chianti.

Cheers!

First Things First

2008-11-05T03:49:00.002-05:00

We woke up at 6am to find out that our next president will be Barak Obama and we could not be happier. What a wonderful feeling to know that we will have a president that we can be proud of. Yes, we can!

Okay, begin blog....
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Malta, Naples, Citavecchia, Lucca and Villefranche - week one

Hi Everyone,

Well, we’re just starting our second week. The first week on the ship was very hectic but fun too.

The first day we got on the ship we were very tired. We had a glimpse of Barcelona from the shuttles windows but we had no energy to go into the city itself. So we settled in on our first day and went to dinner for Mike’s birthday. The dinner was excellent but I felt like I was going to fall over onto my shrimp and swordfish and begin to snore. We both slept about 12 hours that night. 12 hours. That’s a lot of sleep. Unfortunately it didn’t really refresh us but left us feeling still jet lagged.

The next day was a sea day. We didn’t meet for rehearsal until 1:30. Rehearsals went well but we didn’t get onto the stage until the next day. That night I had a horrible time sleeping. I got like 3 hours.

We were in Malta the next day - Malta is beautiful! It’s an ancient walled city and the sail in is really spectacular. As you come into port you have Valletta on one side and on the other you have Sliema. The water is a brilliant blue and the walls of the city are a light blonde stone. It looks like the city grows out of the stone. The city has the look of a Byzantine city with a lot of Italian influence. Malta is an independent country and their languages are English and Maltese. We didn’t have time to wander around but we did have time for coffee and lunch. Always time for coffee - a cappuccino! After lunch I purchased a Maltese pastry - a puff pastry pretzel thing covered with almonds, dark chocolate and more almonds. It was great.

We had some time on the stage that day. The show was coming along but had a lot of work left to do. We had the night off and I used some of that time to study.

Naples was our show day. Naples day is also known as Wednesday. We didn’t get off the ship but we took some photos from the ship. I’ll be posting photos later when I have access to fast internet so for now just words.

The rehearsals went very well that day but it did feel like we were doomed to never get a full run through. We kept getting interrupted by different events on the ship. But, you know, that’s part of living on a ship....there’s always stuff going on. This was a big week for crew events - they had the Miss Norwegian Gem contest and they had a big Halloween party. I didn’t go to either because I was busy trying to sleep and failing.
FYI - Miss Indonesia was crowned the first Miss Norwegian Gem.

We did manage to get a run through in and then we were excused to get ready for the show. We did the show and it went great. The crowd loved it and we felt very proud of our work. We all look forward to doing this show for the next four months.

That night I slept barely at all. Barely at all. Suckville.

The next morning was the planned cast trip to Rome. We just weren’t up to it. I woke up after about 3 hours of sleep and felt like crying. So I stayed in bed. Larrance went and made our apologies and we ended up hanging out in Citavecchia with our friend, Mike. There’s not a lot to Citavecchia. It’s a cute, quiet town. We had coffee, looked at the open market, got pizza (of course!), took photos, petted an Italian dog, had more coffee and returned to relax before our first improv show. The show went great. We have a great cast. Lots o’ fun.

The next day we were in Livorno which is close to Florence. Instead of going to Florence we went to the medieval city of Lucca. Lucca is a walled city with lots of great buildings, sculptures, and piazzas. To get there we had to take a shuttle to the bus, take the bus to the train station, stop for cappuccino, train to Pisa, switch trains to go to Lucca. Lucca is beautiful. I want to go back there when it’s not raining so we can ride bikes along the ancient wall and sit out on the piazza. Since we couldn’t do that we had hot chocolate (more like liquid chocolate mousse) inside. Beth, our producer, took us out to a great lunch at an Italian restaurant. What did you have for lunch? I’m glad you asked:

We had a plate of local appetizers - prosciutto ham, gombatelli (cured fat on bread), salami with fennel, chicken liver pate and some other meat. I tried everything. I ate all of the ham and the pate. All of it!

Next I had a savory tart with ricotta and mushrooms in a chick pea sauce. I ate all of it including the plate. BAM!

Then came my main course of handmade tortellini with ricotta, zucchini and tomato. Larrance had a Luccan soup made of onions. We ate all of that - double BAM!

For dessert I had pear cake with warm vanilla cream and Larrance had chocolate mousse. We ate all that - doubla BAM!

We also drank wine and of course more coffee.

Yeah, it was good. Yum.

We had our final improv show - the adult show. It was a fun show but I was TIRED. Not much sleep and lots of adventure makes Jen dull.

The final day of the cruise we are Villefranche. Villefranche is on the French Rivera. We were pretty tired. So we got up late went and had savory crepes, cappucinos and some water. Then we wandered the quaint, quiet and beautiful Villefranche. A lot of stuff was closed but it was so fantastic. The town is built into the mountainside and parts of the city are very old. So most of the walking is up narrow stairwells that open onto landings that have little gardens or private home courtyards. We finished our trip to Villefranche with the purchase of some perfume....for me.

I finally slept that night - a normal night’s sleep.

We said good-bye to our director - TJ, our producer - Beth, and her assistant - Monica that night. The next day we were in Barcelona. It was raining like sheets of rain with high winds. So we woke up for breakfast at 8:30 then went back to the room for an after breakfast nap. We woke up around 10:30am and got up to go out into Barcelona.

Barcelona is really amazing. Big, beautiful, fast, colorful and friendly. It was still raining but we walked all of La Rambla (markets, shops, restaurants). Then we got a map and started wandering. We found our way into the Roman Necropolis, The Gothic part of the city, lots of funky shops, and an incredible pastry shop. We had some amazing pastry - little almond lemon marzipan cookies and we shared a crunchy chocolate tube filled with chocolate mousse. OH WOW YUM.
We also located, for future use, the Picasso museum and the Archeological museum (see the underground city!).
We also drank cappuccinos and wine. We must have walked forever. I think I would have taken more photos but it was raining so I only took 70. Again, I’ll post them later.

Today is the sea day again and we’re starting all over. Tonight we’re celebrating Rance’s birthday. Tomorrow we’re in Malta again - we’re going to try and see the neolithic ruins and a bunch of other old stuff.

Hey, Europe! Keep it comin’!

Biiieeeee!
 Jen

In the Mediterranean

2008-10-27T07:13:00.001-05:00

We're on the NCL Gem in Europe. It was a whirlwind week. We closed ImprovAcadia on Saturday night with a sold out house and a great show. Thanks to Rich and Rebecca Sohn for a great two weeks.

On Sunday we cleaned and closed up the theater. Thanks Portia for all your help.

On Monday we cleaned and closed up the house.

On Tuesday we flew to Chicago. The Second City bought us a flight from Bar Harbor Airport and we were the only two people on the plane to Boston.

In Chicago we rehearsed the show all day Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

We have a strong cast of our friends that have all been up to ImprovAcadia many times. Rance, Deanna, Brett, and Mike.

On Saturday we flew to Barcelona and joined the ship. We were jet lagged but put in a music rehearsal (there's a lot of music in the new show) and then had a dinner at the Mexican restaurant on board and toasted Mike's birthday.

Today, Monday we rehearse all afternoon. Our show goes up on Wednesday.

There are about 1,000 English speaking passengers on board so we'll only do the Main stage scripted show once to get them all into one house.

We're glad to be back on a ship and the Gem is a beautiful ship and the crew seems very friendly and cheery.

Closing Night.

2008-10-18T12:24:00.003-05:00

Tonight is closing night of our 5th season at ImprovAcadia. We have a sold out house as we have for the past three nights. We had to close for two extra days this last week of our season because Larrance's father passed away and we had to go to Maryland for the funeral. Sad news is mixed with our hectic and exciting closing.

After closing tonight we'll spend two days cleaning the theater and preparing the house for the winter as well.

On Tuesday we fly to Chicago to prepare for our Second City show on the NCL Gem. We fly to Barcelona on Saturday and embark on our ship adventure on Sunday.

And Chris makes four

2008-10-11T10:25:00.003-05:00

We're trying to get our blogging muscle in shape to keep up with more frequent posts.

Chris Day came up for the Columbus Day weekend to join us on stage along with the Sohns.

We have one week left of our 5th season and our houses continue to be well attended in spite of Red Sox Fever, debates, economic jitters, and unseasonably warm weather. Two weeks from today we'll be on our way to Barcelona to join the NCL Gem for our Second City Contract.

Meanwhile, 9 more shows at ImprovAcadia.

1002 and counting

2008-10-05T23:34:00.002-05:00

We had a great sold out night for our one thousandth show with a six person cast. Jen, Mike Shreeman, Pat Shay, Mary Archbold, Rich Sohn, Rebecca Sohn.

Now we are into our last two weeks of the 2008 season and our cast is Jen, Rich, and Rebecca.

We'll see Mike Shreeman soon for our four months on the Norwegian Gem. But that's on the Sea. Meanwhile we're still on land and enjoying a beautiful and chilly Acadian autumn.

1000 shows!

2008-09-30T11:35:00.002-05:00

This Saturday, October 4th at 8PM will be our one thousandth show. We'll crack open some champagne to celebrate this landmark.

Our current cast is: Pat Shay, Mary Archbold, Mike Shreeman and Jen Shepard, of course.

We had a good September--up from last year. We've signed on our lease for another three years in our current space and are looking forward to season 6.

Here Comes Fall

2008-09-10T10:22:00.002-05:00

Hello!

Well, here we are one week into our Fall season. It's finally getting a bit cold and the trees are starting to turn. September promises to be a busy month - Larrance's sister is visiting this week as is Marla's husband, James; my Dad and his wife Mary are visiting at the end of the month; and the NCL Dawn will be coming in once a week and our friends Jeff & Jeannie are on that ship so we'll probably see them pretty frequently. A month of social calls!

Last night was Sam's final night. He left this morning and left us a gift - the travel edition of Settler's of Catan! The travel edition! Wow! Thank you, Sam! If you haven't played Settler's of Catan - do it. I'd explain it but it sounds geeky than it is......or does it?

As of tonight the cast is:
Mike Shreeman
Marla Caceres
Me

Larrance had another day off this week. I'm unsure why we're actually letting him have time off work but we are. We went bike riding on the carriage paths! We were going to ride around Eagle Lake and maybe over to Jordan Pondhouse but the Eagle Lake carriage path was flooded! There were very heavy rains on Saturday and yesterday. So we rode around Witch Hole and Paradise Hill. I was very proud of myself as I rode up all the hills without stopping or walking my bike.

I'm traveling back in time but on Sunday night we had a Nacho Night. It was an epic Nacho Night - Larrance made lime daiquiris, I made guacamole and toasted corn cumin salsa and strawberry dessert nachos; Sam made Italian nachos; Marla made Cuban Pork Nachos. WOW - everything was so good! We're probably going to have another nacho night soon while Marla's husband is here.

We have five weeks left in our fifth season! Cross your fingers that we have a great fall. We've placed a radio ad on I-95 the classic rock station - it's on at approx. 12:32pm and 8:30pm - listen for it!

Jen

First Day Off

2008-09-02T11:23:00.002-05:00

Hello!

Well, yesterday Larrance had his first day off in two months! He was very excited. We went to the Blue Hill Fair (pics coming soon) and we enjoyed the Fair.

Marla and I rode the Thunderbolt and the Tilt-A-Whirl and got a little sick from so much spinning. But it was great.....and we ate fair food and did fair things.

Turn out that Sam grew up owning Llamas and Pygmy Goats so he was a great source of info about those animals. We visited the Llamas and Sam told us they hum - we heard them humming! We visited the goats and Sam said they were nice - they were nice! We had fun petting the animals and listening to stories of Sam's childhood.

We ended the day by making pizza at home, playing Pictionary Man and watching Hot Fuzzy.

It was a good day!

So I missed a few things...

2008-08-25T11:33:00.002-05:00

August got real crazy. We've been busier than ever before so a few things slipped by the wayside....like the blog.

So a few casts have gone by without noting them, I'm going to remedy that right now:

Andy
Joe Burton
Shelby Jennings
Leah Gotcsik
Me

Then Leah departed and we just went with four performers for a bit. Then Farrell Walsh & Sarah Reule took Joe and Shelby's place so it was:

Farrell
Sarah
Andy
Jen

Then Andy left and Natalie Sullivan and Sam Super came so it's been for last three weeks....

Farrell
Sarah
Natatlie
Sam
Me

On Thursday, Natalie, Farrell & Sarah all depart and Jon Karpinos will go in. Jon's only here a short time, so until Sunday it will be:

Sam
Jon
Jen

On Sunday, Jon departs and Marla Caceres arrives so the cast becomes:

Marla
Sam
Jen

That's catches us up on casting.

Like I said, we've been very busy and we're very happy with season five.

More in the Fall when things slow down a bit but hopefully not to much....

Jen

What's up now?

2008-07-21T11:20:00.002-05:00

We are in the thick of the busy season. Crowds have been good and surprisingly happy for July.

Our current cast is:
Joe Burton
Leah Gotcsik
Shelby Jennings
Vince Kracht
Me

This weekend Andy Eninger replaces Vince.

We had our first proposal! Rich asked Lucia to marry him atop Cadillac Mt! We're a breeding ground for love - well, they were in love before they got here but they got engaged here. So, we're a breeding ground for engagement. It's true.

I've tweaked my shoulder somehow - it hurts quite a bit. Frankly, it was either from the handstand I did (pretending to do a keg stand with the help of Shelby) or from the cat bit I did later in the evening. I was pretending to be my Mom's cat Talia after she would come in from being outside and having a good time. Yes, I hurt myself for a bit. I'm serious about bits!

We did our first Improvision at Reel Pizza about a week ago. Basically they show a movie that we've never seen without the soundtrack. We improvise all the dialogue, music and sound effects. Before we see the movie, we have an audience member pick a style from the bag of styles (horror, western, merchant ivory, coming of age, etc.) The first movie was Queen of Outer Space starring ZaZa Gabor. It went very well. We're doing our next one on August 1st at 11pm. Come see it!

More later....

Jen

Quick Update

2008-07-07T10:28:00.002-05:00

Hi-

So we have a new cast!

Currently we have:
Rich Baker
Vince Kracht
Lucia Bonifazi
Amy Roeder
and
Me

On Thursday, Amy departs and Leah starts.

Yep.

There you go.

Jen

Who's here now

2008-06-26T09:44:00.002-05:00

Well, it's...

Brett Lyons
Chris Day
Rachel Miller
Amy Roeder
Me

Chris leaves on Saturday - boo! But Dave Colan arrives - yay!

I have decided to leave knitting for a bit to try Creweling. Yeah, it's that exciting.

Today we're going to take a walk or if the weather holds we might go for a swim.

ImprovAcadia is quickly approaching the busiest part of the season. Already this week it's been very busy and it should just keep climbing. Hopefully July will be a super busy month...and August will be insane. Insane.

We're thinking about creating a radio spot for the fall. We have a bit of trouble getting the older crowd in for our Fall shows so we thought a radio ad might help reach an older demographic. So Andy and I are going to work on it when he's up here in late July and early August....

We're doing a new project this year. We're teaming up with Reel Pizza to create a show called Improvision. If you around Chicago in 2002 (or 03?) you might have seen Fuzzy's Cinema 2.0, and it's kind of like that. The difference for us is we won't know what movie we're going to be dubbing. Oh, and Larrance will be providing a new music score. We're going to do Improvision on July 11th, August 8th and August 15th - I think.

Okay, that's all.

~Jen

As of Today

2008-06-18T10:24:00.002-05:00

Hi!

We've had a great June so far! The weather leading up to this week had been lovely but this week it's turned a bit grey and rainy.

Our current cast is:
Tamara Nolte
Brooke Bagnall
Josh Breit
Amy Roeder
& Me

We change this weekend with Chris Day arriving on Saturday and Rachel Miller and Brett Lyons arriving on Sunday.

It's hard to believe that we still have 4 months to go. All this grey weather is making it feel like fall. I feel like the ship has really thrown off my season-o-meter. Now winter is like summer and summer is like more summer so where's winter? My body is confused!

Today I'm going to move my office upstairs because we need to close up the dining room (which I use as my office) for one of the actors. Tonight we're having our second Nacho night of the season. Basically the cast divides into teams (Larrance & Me, Brooke & Josh, Amy & Tamara) and we each make a version of the Nacho. Then we eat the nachos and watch a horror movie or a horrible movie - sometimes those are one in the same. Fun times. Tonight I'm making Roasted Tomatillo Chipolte salsa over smashed guacamole with a shrimp.....shhhh, don't tell!

Jen

Oh, I didn't know...

2008-06-01T09:51:00.002-05:00

Well, I received some guidance on what my blog entries should include from Rance "Fartface" Rizzutto. Rance asked that I list the cast as it stands right now:

Currently:
Abby McEnany
and
John Hartman

You can see their bios on our website http://www.improvacadia.com

Joining us this week - Tamara Nolte.
By the weekend - Brooke Bagnall & Josh Breit

One more thing, and this is also for ol' Fartface, fffwwwttwap.

Yay!

ImprovAcadia is open!

2008-05-31T10:59:00.003-05:00

Hello!

Well, we're open for season five. We opened just over a week ago and we've had a pretty good first week. The shows have been great and the crowds friendly.

It's raining today so we're unsure if this will help our house tonight or if everyone will flee the island. I don't think we've had a Saturday that hasn't been cold and rainy. Well, maybe last Saturday but that was the ONLY one.

I feel like we're settling into our summer groove. Remembering all the tasks and duties that we have when ImprovAcadia is open. It's funny the things you forget - like printing out the staff schedules. I just forgot to do it. It's been tough finding staff this year. I guess the whole island is experiencing a staff shortage. Part of this is due to the fact that the majority of work visas were denied so many businesses that rely on foreign workers were brought up short. We finally found our part time bartender and another waitress but it looked real hinky for a while.
We've been trying some new improv games this year. That's been fun to try out new stuff. I hope to add some more new games as the season progresses based on the casts' particular talents.

We add our fourth actor (with me, it's a cast o' five) next week and I'm looking forward to it. The addition of the fourth actor means we add more shows to our schedule. Next week, marks our slowly mounting climb to the height of the season. By the fourth of July, we'll be doing 2 shows a night Monday through Saturday with one show on Sunday.

So far it doesn't seem that the gas prices have affected us (knock on wood) and we're hoping that trend continues. We've been having some odd audiences though. I think people are in pretty good moods considering EVERYTHING. However, you can always tell when we're stressed as a country and we are. Still I think people are grateful to have a chance to get away and to laugh a bit. We are finding that lots of our audiences are from Maine so....we could finally get access to that elusive Maine audience. They can't get away from us so we'll just suck them in like a blackhole of comedy. Or some other more friendly image...uh, we're draw them in like a moth to a flame. No. How about? We'll attract them like teenage girls to the mall. Perfect.

I'm still knitting on that rug. I'm half way down which means I've knit 30 ft of rug. That's right, I have another 30 to go. Then I have to put in cotton cording, sew it shut, coil it and then sew it into a circular shape. I'm thinking about knitting some socks or a sweater but first I have to finish this rug.

Okay, I'm off to do laundry and go to the grocery store. EXCITING!

More later...

Two Weeks

2008-05-07T10:33:00.002-05:00

We're a little over two weeks from opening. Things have gone crazy here....it's like we woke up and said, "Oh, right. We have stuff to do. Let's do it!" So we are...

I'm kniting a rug with all my odd's and end's o' yarn. The completed length is 60 feet and then you coil it into a circular rug. Bam!

It's hot, sunny and springy here.

This is short but so am I.

~Jen

P.S. Rance's favorite color is Hot Blue.

One month to go..

2008-04-26T10:20:00.002-05:00

Hi,

Well, we're one month away from opening for our fifth season. We haven't really started working on opening the physical space but we've been working on casting our season. We've got almost the whole cast in place. Now everyone is busy figuring out how they're going to travel up to the northeastern most corner of their country.

We've been working on getting the house ready. Progress on this has been slow. I've been doing some reorganzing but haven't really gotten into the heavy cleaning. I will, oh I will! Beware dust and (what I hope is) dirt! Murphy's oil soap is coming your way!

We're also working on hiring our waitstaff for the summer. I think we're almost done with that. Most of our staff is returning from last year and we have maybe one new addition. This is good news - former staff = easy to get open.

I got new glasses with the sunglass clip-on's. They were a little weird at first. The lenses are bigger than I'm used to and it's a new prescription. It felt a bit like I was in a fishbowl. Now I'm used to them. What? How do they look? Awesome!

For anyone who doesn't know, I'm a knitter. I knit. I purl. I frog. I decrease. I make one. I K2tog. I yo. I kftb. Oh, yeah! Anyway, I went through my yarn stash. Uh, I have a lot of yarn. Full skeins/hanks and many odds and ends. I need to decrease my yarnage. This will be a project for this summer. What will I make? Hmmm. Maybe a poncho...

I've been doing a lot of work in our yard. Raking, weeding, rebuilding little rock borders and planting stuff. I've planted marigolds, wildflowers (I know - they're wild but planted - more like, poserflowers! Oh, I got those flowers in the face!), lillies and lupines. Turns out that I like doing yard work. I thought I hated it. No, I like it. I think you could even say that I enjoy it.

If you have any questions about anything, post them in my comments and I'll answer them.
Serious.

Jen

Wow, that snuck up...

2008-04-14T16:05:00.002-05:00

So here it is Monday. I meant to write this blog entry yesterday but I forgot so now I'm writing it.

We teach an improv class at COA (College of the Atlantic) on Monday and Thursday afternoons. We've just started our third week and the class is great. We're really focusing on long form improv with this group. Last time we taught at COA we focused more on short form work.

Why the change in focus?

We just wanted to teach a class on long form improv. Yeah. We're going to end the class with two groups who will both create their own original opening and perform a long form for an audience of their peers.

I've been on a big healthcare kick. Since getting back on March 30th, I've seen my doctor, been to the eye doctor and I have an appointment to see my dentist. I keep meaning to be more proactive about my health but I always put it off. Not this year! I'm going to go and pick out new glasses tomorrow - my eyes aren't that much worse but my prescription has changed. Besides I want some of those glass with the magnetic sunglass clip-on's.

Larrance's birthday is in one week - mark it in your calendars!

We haven't really started working on the theater yet but I am almost done with casting for the season. I really only have Sept. and Oct. to finish. Whoo-hoo!

Oh, we trapped a chipmunk in our house on Saturday. It was adorable but way overstepped its bounds. So we live trapped and took it to the other side of the Union River! Take that rodentia!

Jen

P.S. I don't hate chipmunks like I do squirrels.

P.P.S. I don't hate Maine squirrels the way I do Chicago squirrels.

P.P.P.S. Chicago squirrels beware my wrath!

Yeah...uh-huh

2008-04-07T10:11:00.002-05:00

Well we're back in Ellsworth, ME. We've settled back into the house for the most part and we've started teaching our improv course at College of the Atlantic.

I was looking at my blog from last year and I realized that I really did a piss poor job of keeping up this year. I was thinking about why. I think part of it was that it wasn't all new. Also I was with a very social group this time around so I was spending less time blogging.

But now I have all these photos that haven't been seen....I need to sort them out but then I'll post some. I know what you're saying, "You said that last time and I came back but nothing had changed. You can't change!" I'm here to tell you - Sweetcheeks, this time it will be different. I promise, sweetcheeks! I'll post some photos and I'll get a job. Just give me another chance! Sweetcheeks, please!

Yes, I'm asking you not to break up with my blog.

I know last year I said I wanted to blog about the season and I do. I'm thinking I should set up a publish day....so how about Mondays. There will be a new post every Monday and maybe some bonus posts!

So, what do you say, sweetcheeks?

~Jen

What have I been doing?

2008-02-19T14:03:00.003-05:00

Well, not blogging obviously. Bad Jen!

I have a lot to write about and some photos to post.

Like I said, we had a great visit with my Mom and her husband, Ray. They were on for a five day cruise and we went to Tulum with them. Tulum is an anicent Mayan city right on the coast of Mexico - close to Playa del Carmen. It is a beautiful site - lots of intact structures and a picturesque beach. My Mom had her knee replaced two years ago and it was amazing to watch her climb all over the ruins.

On Grand Cayman, Ray went golfing with our castmate, Mike Shreeman. They had a great time golfing on a course designed by Jack Nicklaus. They saw lots of blue iguanas.
At one point, Ray lost his ball and he went into the brush to find it. When he moved back a branch, he was confronted with a snake in the tree. Undaunted, he continued to look for his ball until he saw a second snake on the ground. It occurred to him that it might just be better to take the penalty and use a new ball.

While they we're golfing, Larrance and I took my Mom for her first ever swimming/snorkeling in the ocean--experience. We went to West Cemetery Bay which is one of our favorite spots on Grand Cayman. I took my Mom out right away. It was hard for her to trust the ocean - she thought she was going to sink. Then, to couple that with the foreign experience of breathing while your face is under water was all a bit too much for her. So we paddled around a bit and then got out to lay on the beach. I could tell that she was thinking it all over and suddenly she was ready to try again. So out we went and this time she got it! We swam around the closer, smaller reef and we saw all kinds of fish - Surgeon Fish, Tangs, Sargent Majors, Palmettos, Goat Fish, French Grunts and a couple of Squirrel fish.

After that Larrance and I swam out about 100 yards to the larger reef. We saw a spotted eel, a spiny lobster and hundreds upon hundreds of other fish including a bunch of cow fish. It was a great day.

The whole cruise was so much fun and it was a pleasure to have them on board.

Since then we've been taking it easy on adventures in the ports but we have had a few....here are some highlights:

Barbados - We went to a club called the Blue Monkey on Payne's Bay. Payne's Bay is known for having sea turtles around on a regular basis. From the beach to the site of the turtles was about 100 yards and it was filled with boats and jet ski's. Several guys tried to sell us a ride out to the turtles but we said "no thank you!"

Andy and I went first and for the first time in a long time I had a horrible anxiety attack in the water. The water was very choppy and close into the shore the visibility was awful. As Deanna said, it felt like we were in a sensory deprivation tank. Andy stayed with me and talked me through my attack - he was very sweet. Then we made it out to the turtles but there was only one! I was a little bummed thinking all my work was for nothing. Then 3 more appeared - two Green Turtles and two Loggerheads. We also saw two huge Honeycomb Cowfish and a weird thing called a Flying Gurnard. The swim back was just as hard but this time I was with Larrance so I felt very safe.

Dominican Republic - We went whale watching yesterday with Kim Beddall. Kim said that the Bay of Samana is like a singles nightclub for whales.The ocean was super rough yesterday. Luckily, I'd been told to get on the top level of the ship because downstairs was puketown. The ship was rocking so violently that every single person down there got sick - the rest of us on the top were fine. We saw one humpback whale which was very active. The whale breached, tail breached and tail slapped.

Later back on the cruise ship when we were pulling away from port, we saw like seven humpbacks in the distance. They were all breaching and tail slapping. I guess, like any good nightclub, things don't really start happening until nightfalls.

On the Ship - we've now been changed back to Crew. This is a good thing. Instead of being on the passenger list and being guests in crew areas, now we're crew again.

I'll put another update with photos up on Sunday. Sorry to my loyal readers - I hope you're still reading!

xox,
Jen

What's going on?

2008-01-27T12:12:00.001-05:00

~Caught at Nelson's Dockyard in Antigua

Hi!

I'm still writing up an entry for my visit with my Mom and her husband as well as this last nine day cruise.

A few highlights....

While my Mom and Ray were on board, we visited Tulum. Tulum is an ancient Mayan city right on the ocean. It rained that day but we still had a great time exploring Tulum.

On Grand Cayman, Ray went golfing with Mike on a course designed by Jack Nicklaus. Or however you spell his name.... They had a great time golfing, seeing Blue Iguanas, snakes and the ocean.

Mom went snorkeling at West Cemetary Bay with Larrance and me. She'd never swam in the ocean let alone snorkeled. The first time out was a bit rough but by her second time she was a'snorkeling! After that, Larrance and I swam way out to a huge beautiful reef. We saw a spotted eel and a spiny lobster as well as thousands of fish...it was wonderful.

I will write more about our adventures later but here are some photos for right now!

Mom & Ray get comfortable on the NCL Jewel..

We had fancy drinks...

Then off to Mexico and the ruins

Tulum!

Grand Cayman!

xo,
Jen & Larrance

Over the Hill and through the Palm Trees

2008-01-18T15:23:00.000-05:00

We’re just finishing up a nine day cruise. This has been a great cruise - Good weather, lots of snorkeling and fantastic shows.

Our Stardust show was changed to earlier in the cruise, we performed on Monday night this time. Our show fell on Tortola day so we just had a short day at Cane Garden Bay. The water was perfect and we played a bit of frisbee and then had some Ting’s at a waterfront bar. On our way back to the boat, we had a cab driver named Bozo. Bozo told us a lot about the surrounding islands. There’s one island that’s about 45 miles away called Anegada. It’s a coral atoll island circled by the third largest reef in the world as well as several shipwrecks. Larrance and I have put it on the list of places to visit. He also reccommended a beach for our next trip to Tortola - Long Bay on Beef Island. Beef Island is connected to Tortola by a causeway. We might go there or to a secret destination!

Our shows went great this week. We’ve really been working on the improvised musical that closes our show and I think we’ve got it! I probably shouldn’t say that but....we’ve figured out that we just have to make sure all of our characters are “of the same world.” It sounds so obvious but as improvisers we’re always trying to create something new. So we learned to just watch the first scene and pull our characters for scene two right from there. It works! We got lots of nice feedback from the passengers this week.

On Antigua, we took a tour of the island. We went to Nelson’s Dockyard, Devil’s Bridge and Long Bay Beach. Yes, they have a Long Bay too. Nelson’s Dockyard was very interesting and we wished we had more time there. We’re talking about going back on one of our future visits. Devil’s Bridge is a natural limestone bridge between two rocks - the bridge was formed by the pounding of the ocean. It was very dramatic. Long Bay Beach was a gorgeous beach in possesion of some of the softest sand I’ve ever felt. Walking on it was like having your feet on suede - it was great. The snorkeling there was pretty fine. You had to swim out a long way but there were lots of fishes out there. I spotted a Tiger Grouper which is a first this year.

In Barbados we had big plans to go and party at the Boatyard but we awoke to stormy skies and rain. So we just took an aimless stroll around town....Larrance and I went to the Bajan Cigar Factory and learned how they make cigars. Then he bought two cigars for him and Mike.

On St. Lucia we went to Marigot Bay. We’d tried to go to Marigot Bay a few weeks ago but the cab driver talked us out of it. This time we would not be swayed and I’m glad we stuck to our guns! It was fantastic. The cab dropped us off at a little pier and you have to take a tiny ferry over to Marigot. It’s a spit of land with a hotel, restaurant, beach, some jewelry stands and a bunch of rastafarians. The beach was dotted with incredibly tall palm trees and very few people. When I first got in the water, I was concerned because it was so murky. Andy, Larrance and I swam a good ways out and we got to a big wall made of rocks, coral and metal mesh wire. Andy found a way around the wall. On the other side of the wall, were hundreds of French Grunts, Damsel Fish, Brain and Fan Coral. It was fascinating just to watch all the fish swim in and out of the rock wall. But I’m glad I moved on....out beyond the wall was some great snorkeling. Huge brain coral, trunk fish, yellow tube coral, a little blue fish with teal to electric blue spots! It was great. Oh, and another Tiger Grouper. I guess that’s the fish of the cruise.

After we snorkeled for about an hour we decided to have lunch. We joined the non-snorkelers, Rance, Deanna & Mike, at the restaurant. On many of the Caribbean islands they have a local dish called Roti. Roti is a curried mixture wrapped in lentil flour bread. We had fish roti that was great. We added to it’s greatness by dousing it in scotch bonnet hot sauce. So first we looked at fish and then we ate them....seemed right at the time.

After St. Lucia we have two sea days back to Miami. Our improv shows are on the evening of the first sea day. Our improv shows also went great. This is such a fun group to work with!

Tonight we’re going to play Settlers of Catan - a game so geeky even my D & D loving brother won’t touch it. It’s perfect for the ship as it eats up like 2 to 3 hours every time we play it.

This last cruise my Mom and her husband were onboard. We all went to Tulum in Mexico. In Grand Cayman, Ray went golfing with Mike and my Mom went snorkeling with Larrance and me. I'll write a more comprehensive blog and post it in about a week with photos! Happy Fun Fun!

More to come...

xoxo,
Jen

Christmas to New Year’s Eve to Today

2008-01-02T15:14:00.000-05:00

Hi,

So, long time no blog.

I had a bad cold for the last nine day. It started right before Christmas and just ended two days ago.

On Christmas Eve, we went to Brewer’s Bay on Tortola. We went in to snorkel and there were thousands (millions?) of little guppies everywhere. They were so thick that sometimes you couldn’t see anything - the ocean was also very wavy so there was lots of sand in the way.

Rance & Larrance saw a Stingray. I never saw it but I’m sure it passed me in the murky water. There were lots of fish called Palometas around too...they sort of looked like Angelfish.

We stayed in for a bit and then we decided to body surf on the big waves. I’ve never body surfed. I’ll bob around in the rough waters but I’m not big into getting into the waves.

But I thought I should try.

So I got ready for the first wave with Larrance next to me. It came and Larrance rode it all the way to the beach. Me? I got body slammed into the floor and then tumbled to the beach and when I stood up my top had been pulled down. Undaunted I tried again...only to get a free neti courtesy of the ocean, dragged to the beach and my top was pulled up again.

I kept trying, learned to hold onto my bikini top everytime the ocean grabbed me like a ragdoll and let the ocean water and the sand clean out my stuffed up nose. I know it sounds awful but it was really quite fun.

One neat thing: everytime a big wave came up, you could see all the little tiny guppies inside the wave - we were surrounded!!!

On Christmas Eve night Deanna, Rance, Larrance and I attended the Christmas sing-a-long on the ship. It was fun if a little odd. The pianst was Russian who now lives in Canada and he didn’t know or have music for the carols. He did his best but sometimes he ended up playing the wrong music...like he was supposed to play “Hark, the Herald Angel Sing...” but he played “Gloria Deo” instead. We all made do and had fun. After that we had dinner in the Garden Cafe and then went to Andy’s room to exchange our Secret Santa presents.

Andy was my secret santa - he got me some very nice things. My favorite was a set of stickers - one set is the “Jen approves” and it shows me smiling - the other is the “Jen disapproves” and it shows me scowling. Great gift. Everyone got each other very thoughtful and fun gifts and it was a fun way to spend Christmas Eve.

Christmas day was spent in Antigua. Everything was closed....and I’m glad, they should all be home celebrating and hanging with their fams! We walked around a bit and then went back on the ship since I was having trouble with the cold. Frankly I didn’t do much for the rest of the nine day cruise except rest. It paid off in energy and full voice for the shows.

By the last sea day of the nine day, I was back to my old self. On Miami day we spent the afternoon with the lovely Edward Strambio! He’s on the NCL Dawn which is in port with us on Sundays. We met at the Holiday Inn and then went to the Walgreens to stock up, then to Starbucks to caffeniate up and then to the beach to bask in the sunlight. It was a great way to spend the afternoon in Miami.

The first full sea day of this five day was New Year’s Eve. We all got dressed up and went to dinner at Azura. The menu was fantastic - so delicious and special. Then we saw Band on the Run....the JARS do such a good job and we wanted to support them on New Year’s Eve.

After that, it was up to the pool deck for the countdown to midnight. We stood on the deck, tried on goofy hats, had free champagne and took photos. Around 20 minutes to midnight, the cooks came out with an ice sculpture that said “2007.” ??? Well it turns out that they had a plan.

At midnight they pushed the 7 into the pool and replaced it with an .....8!!!! Right after that the cruise director, Paul, jumped into the pool in his suit and swam a lap. It was pretty great. We all hugged and kissed and felt grateful. A pretty great New Year’s Eve.

On New Year’s Day, we were on Grand Cayman. Larrance, Rance, Deanna, Svetlana, Roman and I all went to Smith’s Cove. We went there last time we were on Cayman and had a great time. This time was just as great but better!

Roman & Svetlana brought bread with them and the fish just flocked...er, swam to us. For Christmas, Rance’s mom sent him a waterproof set of fish flipcards. Rance takes photos so he gave the flipcards to me and I had a ball identifying all the fishies.

Later, Larrance and I swam over to another part of the cove and we saw a juvenile French Angelfish - it was beautiful. We also saw Squirrel fish, Doctorfish, Blue Tang, Cocoa Damsels, Tomates, French Grunts, Goatfish and some others that I didn’t have time to identify. Rance has some other cards so I’ll have to do some retro identifying.

We had our Stardust shows that night. They both went great. We’ve been struggling a bit with the improvised musical that ends our show. Just trying to find the right format and make sure it’s fun for all. I think we nailed it last night. They both rocked and we brought the house down.

Some of the JARS were at our show, I could see Jon Paul, Christopher, Phillipa & Ryan. There may have been others there but that’s who I could see. They were, as always, really supportive. After the show we went to Bar City, Deck 6 midship, and we had a drink with Christopher and Jon Paul. Then we went to the Blue Lagoon, Deck 8 midship, for some comfort food. We went to bed around 2am.

We both fell soundly asleep. Later that night I had a weird dream where I was trying to see a bulletin board but I couldn’t keep myself on the same level. I kept rising way up into the air and then dipping way down. Then the shuddering of the ship awoke me and I realized we were in the middle of a huge storm. 17 foot waves were rocking the ship and everything on the ship was rocking, creaking and shuddering. Larrance and I both were awake so we watched the storm from our porthole. But watching the storm made us both feel a little sick so we stopped. I tried to go back to sleep but the dipping and rocking of the ship kept waking me up. It was like my brain thought it needed to alert me to danger - I told my brain that it was wrong and finally fell back asleep.

This morning the ocean was still quite rough - 12 ft waves - and I guess we were lucky to make it into the port. Two other NCL ships (the Sun & Majesty) didn’t even come in - too rough. It took an hour to pull into the dock - they had to be so careful not to crash into the dock. So it was an hour of gunning the manuvering engines, move 2 inches, gun them again and move 2 more inches. They did a great job because the ship is fine. Freakin’ Disney Cruise Line waited until we were docked and then they slid into port using our ship as shelter. What a bunch of Micky Mouse jerks.

So instead of snoreking at the Coral Princess hotel, we’re sitting at the internet coffee place. We had a delicious pablano corn quesadilla and some coffee. And internet time...

Tonight we have our improv shows. We’re looking forward to them. Tomorrow is a sea day. We’re planning on exchanging photos and playing some games. Hope all is well with you!

xoxo,
J & L

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

2007-12-21T11:56:00.000-05:00

Hello,

Just a quick note to say Happy Holidays!

We just finished a five day cruise. On the five day we go to Cozumel & Grand Cayman, both are lovely places to visit. We didn't do much in Cozumel. Just went to an internet cafe and ate guacamole and drank mochas...not at the same time.

On Grand Cayman, we went to a beautiful beach called Smith's Cove. This was a half sand half volcanic rock beach with fantastic snorkeling. There were all kinds of fish there and a bunch of large coral heads. I think I saw an eel....it freaked me out and right after I saw it a leaf touched me and I screamed. Yes, I love the ocean but it still scares me. That means I respect the ocean!

Okay, well we're off on the Christmas nine day cruise. On Christmas Eve we'll be on Tortola, we're thinking about going snorkeling at Virgin Gorda or to the beach at Brewer's Bay. Either way I'll be in a swimsuit with a snorkel on my face.

For Christmas, we'll be on Antigua. I'm not sure what we'll do on Antigua. Maybe head to Nelson's Dockyard and Devil's Bridge and (surprise) a beach for some snorkeling!

For me Christmas will be a hot and humid affair where fir trees look weird and people insist on saying, "Happy Christmas, Mon!" I'll miss my Midwestern/New England Christmas but I won't be miserable!

Happy Christmas, Mon!

L & J

Photos Blog

2007-12-16T12:16:00.001-05:00

Hey Again...

I forgot to mention that Larrance and I have been playing a lot of hackey sack. Yes, that game with the little ball where you kick it with your foot and try to pass it to other people. Mike is a big hackey sack fan so we're trying it out. I think we're getting quite good. Soon I'll be named "All American Sports Phenom" of this cast...

Okay pics..

Us...you know who we are!

Our friend Mike and a Giant Larrance on Barbados

A grey day on Barbados

Caribbean Side and Beach of Pigeon Point

The Atlantic Side of Pigeon Point

Dramatic sky over Pigeon Point, St. Lucia

What’s Been Going On...

2007-12-16T11:57:00.000-05:00

Hi!

I know I haven’t written in a while so what have I been doing? Well....getting used to the new ship, settling into our schedule, and relaxing. Yes, relaxing!

The seas have been uncommonly rough for the last couple of cruises. I guess this might be due to the fact that we’re at the tail end of hurricane season or maybe the fish are revolting or maybe Neptune is angry....anyway the nights have been super rocky. I don’t know if it’s because this an older ship or because the seas are so rough but this is a creaky ship. We’re living on deck 4 again and at night I just listen to the ship creak and waves crash on the hull and our porthole. A couple of times I’ve been awoken by a big crash....I think it might be being woken up, but, those times feel like the ship is being tossed about by the ocean. Okay, ocean, we get it! You’re mighty!

On this ship they have chairs on deck 7, my favorite deck, so I’ve spent a lot of time out there reading and watching the flying fish and the moody waves. It’s so nice....lots of people nap out there which I find weird. I don’t mean they fall asleep in their chairs overcome with sleep as they’re reading - no - they take a chair and get some towels and make a bed and go to sleep. I feel like telling them they should go back to their rooms to get some rest but I refrain and let them slumber. So you can nap in a chair but let’s not make a bed, okay? Okay.

We’ve had some great snorkeling adventures. On the last five day cruise, we all went to West Cemetery Beach on Grand Cayman. It’s called Cementery Beach because it’s behind a cementery complete with graves! The snorkelling was crazy! Grand Cayman has a fringe reef meaning that it surrounds the island and is accessible directly off the beach. We walked in and about 5 feet out there were FISH! All kinds - I’m strarting to learn some of their names - Goat fish, Red Squirrel fish, Solider fish, Blue Tang, Yellow Tang, Grey Tang(?), Nassau Grouper, Grand Cayman Gamma and a huge lobster/crab thing.

While the snorkeling was great, the fish were super aggressive. They followed us or swam up to us..I got nipped at one point but no blood was drawn. I think that people might feed the fish and so to them we looked like a bunch of floating lunch ladies. Larrrance and I swam out to the larger reef that was waaaaay out - I’m getting to be a much stronger swimmer, I can keep up with L - and out there were some huge fish. The biggest was a like a 3 or 4 foot silver fish....which was great until it decided that I was a lunch lady....I can swim fast...away from overly friendly fish. Next time we’re going to bring our fins and go out a bit further and bring some fish mace.

We also went to Long Bay on Tortola. This was not a snorkel day. Nope. This was a play in the huge crashing surf day. I didn’t go out far at all - it was so rough and the undertow was powerful. I practiced a bit of body surfing - which really means I got myself unafraid of the huge waves. This loss of fear was based on my feet being firmly on the ground at all times...so it wasn’t body surfing so much as bobbing...but that’s a step in the right direction.

We also went to Pigeon Point on St. Lucia. Pigeon Point is lovely because on one side is the Carribean Sea and on the other is Atlantic Ocean. The Carribean is calm and lovely while the Atlantic is violent and dramatic. Last time we went there, the snorkeling was disappointing because it was so murky. This time was sooo different. The reef was small but filled with anenomes, coral and tons of fish. I saw a butterfly fish, rock fish, angel fish, parrot fish, damsel fish, yellow tang, and so much more. The whole cast went together and we were joined by Roman & Svetlana and Sasha. Roman and Svetlana are married and usually they are the ballroom couple in the JAR shows on the ship. Right now Svetlana is pregnant so Roman has a new temp partner, Sasha. They’re all from Belarus and lots of fun. We all spent some time together and some time apart. Larrance and I ended up on the Atlantic side to have lentil soup and cheese toasties and a Piton beer...it was a great day.

We’re looking forward to Christmas on the ship. We’re all doing a Secret Santa gift exchange and planning a little celebration in one of our rooms. We’ll all miss our families but overall I couldn’t be more grateful to have such a wonderful group of people with me on the ship!

More soon.....

xoxo,
Jen & Larrance

Thus Spake Larrance....

2007-11-30T13:47:00.000-05:00

Larrance here. I thought I'd take a stab at a blog entry. It's the first of two sea days at the end of our first nine day cruise. Jen is in the gym working out and I'm just taking it easy. Our whole cast had to get up early today to attend a safety training where we learned about fire doors and other useful bits of information.

Our status on the ship continues to evolve. When we first got on two weeks ago we were simply guest entertainers who are basically passengers who happen to live here for 4 months with little or no access to crew parts of the ship. This is a change from last year when we were officially crew with passenger rights.

Not having access to crew areas is a problem because we become friends with other crew members but can't visit them in their quarters or get together for drinks in the crew bar. The safety officer told us this morning that living here for 4 months we need training above and beyond what normal passengers need.

Also, Second City cast members traditionally get involved in many crew activities such as helping out arranging parties and helping out in the crew store.

So, these problems obviously have come to the attention of the NCL corporate heads and they've now restored all crew access to us which is great.

The crew and staff on this ship have been amazingly friendly and warm to us and now we can join them and do things with them much easier.

We also, as a cast are doing our part to engage the passengers. We attended the VIP party and shmoozed and have taken many opportunities to talk to the other guests as well.

Our show was late in the cruise--day five of the nine day cruise. All the other entertainment on board has been of an exceptionally high calibre. A juggler named Edge puts on a fantastic performance and the JAR dance company has 3 very good and impressive shows with a talented cast.

The bar is set very high on this ship and even though our first cruise shows went very well (the five day was a young crowd) I was nervous for this weeks cruise. On a nine day cruise the average age of the passengers is much older and I was concerned that Second City comedy may not go over as well.

The 7:30 audience did seem to need to warm up to us but they did and the show went well. The 9:30 audience was with us from the get-go. We've been receiving a lot of positive feedback.

Our show features a lot of meaty relationship based scenes and a lot of improvisation including ending the show with 10 to 12 minute long improvised musical which is nice for me to have a more creative role in the main stage show.

It's a fun show and we have a great cast of all talented and good friends that have all worked with us in Maine many times as well.

Tonight we perform the fully improvised show in the lounge.

Yesterday we were in St. Lucia where we spent a few hours at Reduit Beach--swimming and playing frisbee.

Around 3:30 PM just after Jen and I had returned to the ship, as we were cleaning up we felt the ship rumble. My first thought was the they started the engines for some reason but I quickly realized that we were experiencing a fairly large earthquake. The buildings right at the port were swaying and I heard reports of merchandise tumbling in the shops.

Normally, when a ship is at sea an earthquake would go unnoticed but because we were docked we felt it on the ship pretty strongly. It lasted a good 60 seconds.

The captain came on the loudspeaker later in the day to assure the passengers that there was no damage to the ship.

This was my second earthquake. It was 7.3 on the Richter scale and the epicenter was only about 100 miles away near Maritinique.

My first earthquake was in Bar Harbor last year 2 minutes into the start of our show when the 4.6 magnitude quake just a few miles away (virtually underneath us) felt like a truck hit the building. It was a quick and sharp explosion. This one was longer and felt more like lateral vibrations through the ship.

This past week we also went to Brewer's Bay in Tortola. In Samana and Antigua, and Barbados we just took it easy and walked around the port. We'll plan excursions for future visits.

We're enjoying our second contract and have been settling in. I have good access to the grand piano and I also brought a full (medium) sized electric MIDI keyboard so I can get some work done on my music as well. Once I've settled in and remember I not just on a perennial vacation.

Jen will write more soon.

Home...Rehearsals...3 Day....5 Day

2007-11-23T11:56:00.000-05:00

Hello!

No photos to post this week but I'll have my act together by the end of the next cruise (9 days).

At this point Larrance and I have turned our house over to our winter tenant, Alix, traveled to Maryland (Larrance), St. Louis (Jen) and Omaha (L & J). After we finished visting family, we flew to Chicago for 3 days of rehearsals. We had a great rehearsal process as we were blessed with a fantastic cast (Rance, Deanna, Andy, Mike and us!) and a great director, Matt Craig. We had a lot of fun in rehearsal and it seemed almost effortless. Matt allowed us to create an improvised musical piece to close our Stardust show. While we were in Chicago we also saw our friends Rich & Rebecca Sohn, and played with them (and Mark Sutton) at the Annoyance Theater. The Annoyance Theater has moved into a new space up on Broadway by the Green Mill and it is a great space. They have a bar in the front and a theater in the back with offices on the second floor. The show was dirty and fun and fairly musical. One of our students/waitreses/interns, Sarah, has moved to Chicago so we saw her and took her out to dinner.

The day we flew to Miami we had to leave our apartment at 4am in the morning. We were staying in a "corporate" apartment just below our director so we all took a limo to the airport together. So....at about 3:50am we're starting to get our luggage outside and Matt is already out there. We were told to leave the keys in the apartment and to leave the apt. door unlocked but of course the outer security door would still be locked. So Matt was outside and we brought out our first load of luggage and Matt held the door for us. As we went down the stairs, I looked back to see Matt letting the door slowly close and just as it clicked shut (with an audilbe click of the lock) Matt said, "you have your keys, right?" and Larrance said, "you didn't just really do that, did you?" We all panicked. Matt buzzed one of the apartments. Larrance ran to the door as the limo pulled up to the curb. Larrance asked for something sharp or flat and I gave him my debit card and he managed to jimmy the door open! Catastrophe averted!

We got to the airport and made our first flight to Cinn., OH. While we were there we had breakfast and sighted Tim Gunn!!! Yes, there he was walking through the airport looking dapper and handsome. It was very exciting. Beth approached him (usually against her rules but she loves him) and told him that we're all from Second City and that we appreciated his show. He'd heard of Second City and thanked her very warmly. Tim Gunn!!!!!

Our flight to Miami was delayed but we made it and the process of getting on the the ship was easier than anticpated. We checked in and began our on ship rehearsals...which is a tale I will tell next time on Jen & Larrance on a ship....I'll also have photos....

Yay!

xoxo,
Jen

Back!

2007-10-27T09:56:00.000-05:00

Hello to Anyone who might still be checking this Blog....

We're going on another ship, the Norwegian Jewel, we sign-on on November 15th. I will once again be keeping a blog of all our ship adventures.

We closed IA for the season 2 weeks ago today. We had a great season. I know I promised to blog throughout the season but I just couldn't seem to get it together. Blogging on the ship is easy because I have set days that I can update (free computer access) so that gives me a deadline. During the season I can do it anytime so I don't do it....
Also everyday is kind of the same so I feel like there's not a lot to write about - there are many events but it's the same event over and over again. It goes like this: Larrance and I got to theater early to clean up from the night before and to answer the phone. We either get dinner our or eat what I made during the day. Then we warm-up and do 1 to 2 shows.
I know, I know. There's a lot that goes on so next year I'll just have to try it again. Maybe I'll give myself a deadline...

So Anyway...the ship blog will begin around Mid-November. Check it out!

xo,
Jen

Open!

2007-05-28T10:11:00.001-05:00

Hello!

So ImprovAcadia opened on Friday night to a sold out house! The first cast is Rebecca & Rich Sohn and me with Larrance on the keyes. The show went well and we had a good time. We tried a lot of the new improv games that we learned on the ship and brought back some old chesnuts.

For some reason, the opening this year wasn't as stressful as year past. I suppose it could be that Rich & Rebecca are a very relaxing presence or that we got to relax for four months on a floating town or that by this point we know what we're doing re: opening - whatever the reason the stress level was low. This actually made me a little nervous - I was like, "Where's the stress? This can't be good. Or can it?" Turns out to be good. Funny how stress can be a security blanket or a barometer of things "going right." I mean not really because it's not. You get it. Don't act like you don't. Okay then.

We also had two sold out houses on Saturday night and we had a great house last night. We're closed today!!! Day off for everyone!!! This definitely merits the use of exclamation points as Larrance usually doesn't get a day off but this year he does!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our dessert person, Cas, made Coconut Cupcakes for our dessert special. Please note I LOVE coconut cupcakes. I haven't eaten one (they're for theater!) but we did cut one up so everyone could taste it. Delicisasty = Delicious + tasty.

I think we're going hiking today or we might go to the Wyeth museum in Rockport/Camden. The hike is 30 minutes away and the museum is 90 minutes away so the hike might win.

We're trying to get some photos but here's one of the cast from last year - see if you can figure out who's who....

Here's a pic of Larrance at the piano...

So ImprovAcadia is open for season four - Yay!

~Jen

A time to go through our stuff

2007-05-16T23:09:00.000-05:00

Hello!

Well Larrance and I've been working on getting the house and the theater ready for season #4. We've been doing lots of cleaning and reorganizing.

We were worried that we were coming back to a very messy and unorganized house but we left it really neat and fairly organized. The funniest part is all the notes we left ourselves....notes that we forgot about....I just found one yesterday on the bar about what I need to buy for the theater/bar. I was so together before I left! I impress myself.

The house is very close to being ready for the summer of actors! We just have to finish tidying up the living room and dining room. And we have to move our room out to the summer bedroom aka the converted garage. Just last week it was so warm that we were thinking we might move soon but it's turned rather nasty and cold this week so we'll wait..

I've been continuing my workout regime here at home. I don't work out quite as frequently but I've been going for three times a week - walking, weights and jumping rope. I hope to continue this over the summer. I need to find a medium ground so my arms don't ache and feel like limp noodles during the shows.

We spent most of the day at the theater today getting orders - today we got about half of our beer and all of our food. So that meant that I had to reorganize the storage room. The storage room is also the dressing room so I had to make sure we had plenty of room for the actors and for all of our stuff. I also cleaned out the freezer and turned on the freezer in the bar/kitchen area. We have two freezers and two fridges. The two that are in the storage area are left on all winter to keep stuff....uh, cold. So I cleaned those out to prepare them for the new arrivals and turned on the one in the bar to get ready for Summer.

Sarah Marino (improv student, former waitress and all around swell gal) was helping me today and what a help she was! She washed all of the glass wear, cleaned the lobby and set-up the kitchen. She is fantastic. Sarah won't be working for us this summer because she's going to Chicago in July/August to take the i.O summer intensive. Chicago! Be good to her.
All of Sarah's help left me free to tackle some other projects which was great. I finally made order sheets for SYSCO (our food and paper products people). This involved tracking down all the SYSCO boxes and finding the item order number and writing it down. I also made a master order list of all the things we order from SYSCO and everyone else. As well as a master grocery shopping list. I've never done any of this - I always redid it everytime I had to order. How dumb is that? I know, super fracking dumb. So no more, now I have an order sheet! Yay for organization after 3 years. It took that long to sink-in but it did sink in. I'm like limestone!!!

So today the bar started looking like the bar again and we were once again serenaded by the soothing sounds of the freezer compressor. The dressing room/storage area looks wonderful. I've been on a big kick of going through everything....sorting drawers, baskets, stacks.....and I've managed to clear up a lot of junk. I feel much better about the house and the theater. At home I've gone throught my clothes again and done another purge. Being on the ship made me realize that I really do just live off of 1/3 of my clothes so good-bye other 1/3. I still need the other 2/3rd's as a security blanket. No, just kidding. I've gotten rid of another big pile of clothes and some shoes. gasp.

We're still working on filling one gap in the theater schedule. We have a two week gap at the end of the season. It looks like we might have it filled but we're waiting to hear. I hope so. Cross your everything and hope with me!!

So our list has shrunk to one page each....we open in just over a week and I think we're going to be ready. We just have to finish the house, the theater, get the rest of our orders in and flyer. We can do that.

~Jen

The Last Word?

2007-04-26T09:15:00.000-05:00

Well we’re back in Maine. We got home last Thursday and spent the weekend cleaning the house. I wanted to be done cleaning the house by Monday but honestly we left the house super clean ( I have no memory of doing this so maybe it was crazy cleaning aliens) so there’s not much of that to do. I still washed every surface in the kitchen including what I will now refer to as the mouse drawer. We have had a mouse attack one drawer over and over again. Everytime I remove everything bleach it all, bleach the drawer, bleach Larrance...you get the picture...but the mouse comes back. My mom suggested that “brick up the drawer” I think the mouse would just chew through the brick. Anyway there’s no more sign of Mr. Mouse so we’re good on that front.

So instead of cleaning we have our least favorite task at hand - organizing, sorting, deciding where stuff goes - boo! I’m a stacker by nature. A stacker is someone who organizes there lives in ever chaging fluxating stacks of paper. I need to change this but I must admit I love stacks. What looks better, more industrious than a table full of stacks? Oh, sure a neat file cabinet, well labeled and logically organized. I can’t do it and I married someone who also can’t do it. We’re going to try again...try to organize. Since we’re a month away from opening ImprovAcadia and having all the actors in our home we can’t just put our stuff wherever-we have to place it with the future in mind. I’m not mentally ready. I have Boat Brain.

Boat Brain was first brought to my attention by Andy. He told me that he stays up late even when he has to get up early. That he can’t make himself work. Now, this could be a case of Boat Brain mixed with Baby Brain but we’ll never know because Science doesn’t care!!! Here we suffer with Boat Brain. What is it? The urge to make breakfast last 3 hours, to take a nap even though you had 8 hours of sleep, to stare out the window while you blow on a cup of herbal tea, to watch a movie/tv show/public access show you’d never watch normally, to snorkel, to drink exotic and bizarre sodas, to lay around until you have to do something (which never really materializes). That’s Boat Brain some would call it denial but I call it Boat Brain.
We act like we have all the time in the world when we have a month. I think we have a minor case but still butts must be put in gear...4 wheel butt drive.

So the ship - we really liked living on a cruise ship despite the whole cruise ship thing. Even though the ship was gaudy and strange, there was always the beauty of the ocean. I never got tired of looking out my porthole or walking deck 7 or staring off the deck at the Great Outdoors. It just never got old.

I never got over my fear of a giant shark (as big as the ship) appearing and eating me but it didn’t stop me from getting in that water. I loved it. Even though I was scared of how small and relatively out of control I was in the water that was part of what I liked too. The fish were so fast, graceful, placid, toothy and here I was moderately tanned, somewhat toned and basically naked....a tiny beige speck with flippers and a mask and a tube to the surface....it was like I was floating in a salty marinade....but luckily none of them ate me. They did stare, follow and at times get alarmingly close but I was grateful to get a chance to really look at them even as I thought about taking flight back to the shore.

I think the same could be said of the passengers. I felt a bit out of my element on the ship but they were all happy as sea cucumbers. Or pick another sea creature...whatever. Again they stared, followed, pointed, at times pushed and when things got real strange they would glare or fawn depending on their dispositon and level of alcohol consumption. But they didn’t bite me even though I was floating in a giant hot pink/teal/orange marinade almost naked....but I was grateful to get a chance to really look at them even as I thought about taking flight back to the shore.

As many of you know, we’re going back onto an NCL ship in November. Next time we’ll be on the Jewel....sister to the Pearl. No bowling alley but private karoke rooms are available.
So we’ll be back to Maine in March which is great. Returning in March means we’ll be able to hold auditions and see our friends back in Maine before we all get into the Season. It also means we’ll get to snorkel more and more and more. I think I’m going to try “Discover Scuba”. Basically they let you try Scuba in a highly safe and moderated atmosphere and see if you want to pursue it...

So we have plans for our next cruising experience. We plan to find some sea turtles and get real with them. We demand to see a school of dolphins from the ship; followed by a White Shark leaping out of the water to eat a bunch of tourists; followed by a whale ballet; followed by a buffet of bread products.

If none of that happens, I think we’ll be happy with a bit of snorkeling, seeing some wildlife, drinking a few tropical drinkies and having a lot of free time. So we’ll look forward to our next adventure with The Second City and NCL.

I think I’m going to keep posting to this blog about our season at ImprovAcadia so keep checking back. I guess I’ll have to change the title...anyway I’m not sure if everyone knows what it’s like here in the Summer so I’ll show and tell you.

~Jen

Five Days and Counting on My Fingers!

2007-04-08T14:57:00.000-05:00

Well, we just finished our last nine day cruise of this contract. We have five more days to go....well, really six if you count our sign-off day...but I don’t so, 5.

This last cruise set an NCL record for most passengers ever on an NCL ship. There were 2,900 passengers, 800 of which were kids. The ship was soooo crowded. We were all banned from restaurants and only allowed in the Garden Cafe at non peak times. That was okay because if you wanted to go to a restaurant you either had to go at 5pm or 9pm. So we spent the week eating quick meals in the Garden Cafe.

Our shows were well attended and overall the passengers were friendly and complimentary. We did a workshop for the 10-12 year olds at the Kid’s Club. The kids were pretty great and the Youth Counselors were grateful for the break. We divided the kids into three groups and taught each group an improv game that they performed for one another. The older girls were a bit frustrating as they were very concerned with putting their hair over their faces and allowing the boys to walk all over them. I was like, you need to listen to some Helen Reddy - Hear me Roar!

Larrance and I were both fighting off a cold this week so we didn’t do much in Dominica which was a shame but it was more important to rest.

In Barbados, we went to the Malibu distillery and toured the site and then hung out on the beach. Then we ate Bajan fish fritters with spicy mustard sauce! We also drank coke with Malibu rum- oh, it was delicious. The beach was lovely and the tour was extra fun because we got to wear hard hats!

All of us in Hard Hats

Andel!

Malibu beach

View of Pearl from Malibu

A Bird...trying to steal our lunch!

We went to Anse Chastanet again. It’d been raining for five days straight in St. Lucia so the water was a bit murkier than the last time. We saw several small jellyfish which we think were washed in from the rain. Still, the snorkeling was great..a little scary at times...you'd look up or down and there was a jellyfish floating by. They looked dreamy. I also saw an black and yellow striped fish that was the size of my pinky nail and it kept swimming towards me. Infact all the black and yellow striped fish kept swimming very close to us. We also saw these enormous blue on top, white/silver on the bottom Gar like fish. They stared and followed. I think they want to sample my goods!!!
We took an underwater camera and we’lll have those photos developed when we get off the ship. We had lunch there and tried, for the first time, Banana ketchup. It was delicious. If you’re ever on St. Lucia, try it.
We also tried Sorrel Shandys - try those too.

Martin in the van to Anse Chastanet

The view from my beach towel

Pitons

Sorrel Shandy cover shot by yours truly

Antigua was an easy day. We walked around and ate some pizza. We did discover that our debit cards have stopped working. Mine had expired in the middle of March but I’d called the bank and asked them to extend the expirationn date. They said that was no problem. Well, I went to use it and it wouldn’t work. So I called the bank and they said, “No, we can’t do that and we never could’ve done that and you’re totally screwed. Hah, ha, ha.” Okay, they didn’t say that, but very close. So we couldn’t buy any more hot sauce - we were planning to buy 4 more bottles. This turns out to be a good thing since half of one of our suitcases is hot sauce. No, I’m not kidding.

It was Good Friday when we were on Tortola so almost everything was closed. We went out to lunch and wandered around Tortola. We chatted with a gentleman who was about to leave on a week long trip on a small yacht. He was very friendly and we both hoped he would kidnap us but no such luck.

We returned to the ship for our last day and a half of sea time. I’ve never minded Sea Days but lately I’ve been so very antsy. I’m no longer charmed by hours and hours of free time. I’m ready to get off of this ship. Nothing really relieves this feeling - working out, seeing a show, reading, watching a movie - nothing. I’m lucky because I didn’t really feel this way until now. This has been a great experience for both of us. The other night we were having coffee and discussing all the things we want to do when we come back. Oh, that’s right, you might know....we’re going to be on the NCL Jewel in November.
We’ll sign-on around Nov. 8/9th and get off in March around the same date. I think it will be a great thing to do right after our season. Our itinerary will be similar to this one. We’ll go to Cozumel, Grand Cayman, Tortola, Samana, St. Lucia, St. Thomas, and Barbados. Yay!

After we sign-off the ship, we’re going to Baltimore to visit Larrance’s family. Then we’ll stop and see Sinclair and Sue and then home! When we get home we’ll have five weeks before we open for season four. I’m almost finished with the schedule - I have one slot to fill, one to confirm, and one that’s almost confirmed. It’s taken a long time and been difficult to do from the ship. Next year we’ll be able to hold auditions in March so I won’t have to do any of this from the ship....

A while ago I’d promised a photo tour of the ship and I took the photos but uploading all of them would take a long time. So I’ll post that when we get to Balitmore and I have access to free and unlimited high speed internet. Look for that next week...

Well I’ll write again when we’re all done and off the ship....

~Jen