::on Opa's 83rd birthday::

Signing off for the weekend...

favorites: the buildings!

My view of these normally dreary, dim places is bright and sunny because it was unusually warm there. So all of the cute jackets and sweaters that I had bought and brought were basically of no use! However, I'll take bright and sunny over dim and dreary any day, even with the cutest sweaters and jackets!

Catherine's palace

in Estonia

the Peterhof--summer palace of the czar's

my uber-favorite place--Stockholm!!

favorites: family

I am attempting to upload my "favorite" pictures from vacation for my benefit -- so that I don't forget the memories!  Here are some of my favorite,  unedited pictures of our family in no particular order of importance, favorability, or date of occurence.  :)

Mom and Dad in Helsinki, Finland.  See those stickers on their shirts?  They might as well be flashing lights that say, "Tourist.Tourist.Tourist."  haha  We had to wear those stickers when we were with a cruise sponsored tour.

Opa and Geoff -- last night of dinner.  {No, we did not wear chef's hats each  night.}

Geoff in front of Catherine's Palace

Mom and I at the Tower of London with a bridge in the background.

Our favorite place to relax...the Explorations Cafe.  It was at the top of the ship and had a fantastic view!

bliss in a package

So....one of the places we {my Mom and I} wanted to see in London was the Liberty of London store.  I had never heard of Liberty until I went into Target one fine day and saw the endcaps filled with beautiful, floral things.  From garden trowels to rain boots, notebooks to teapots, I was intrigued and smitten.  When I got home that day, I mentioned to Mom my new discovery.  The name rang a bell because the store was right around the corner from the hotel where they had just stayed at.  A-mazing!

Well, it just-so-happened that we stayed at the exact same hotel in June.  And...the Liberty store was right around the corner.  Monday night, we were so tired from flying through the night and jet lag but my parents and brother and I decided to do a little shopping/sight-seeing in the district where we were staying.

I am simply in love with the Liberty store.  I found the most amazing bright, floral dishes.  But I decided it was a little early in the trip to buy something that heavy.  [Post edit: I didn't mean I wanted to buy a whole set of dishes.  :/  NO.  I wanted to buy one bowl, that's it!!]  I settled on the most blissful smelling soap.

Do you want bliss in a package?

Try this soap.

{travel worn and weary}

{look at those flowers!!!}

happy people

If I were to let my feelings dictate where I lived, I would currently be a missionary to the Indonesian people.  There are thousands of islands in that country and they are 4th in population in the world and that is right behind the United States.  All of our servers in the restaurants on the boat were Indonesian. 

We sat at the same table every night for dinner and got to know our servers.  The assistant dining manager ws Pipit.  In the video, he is in the white suit jacket.  He has been working for this particular cruise line for 12 years.  He will only renew his contract one or two more times.  He is Muslim...and needs the Lord.

Our main server was Beni.  He was all business but very nice.  His English was limited but he did an excellent job serving.  He has a wife and little baby back home and will not go back until the beginning of next year.  He said he will renew his contract with the boat because it's the best job to be had in their country.  I could see him being a faithful member of a church if he was a Christian.

Beni's helper was Yasir.  Hilarious!!  His English was good because he's so friendly, he talks to a lot of people.  I think he's living the high life working on this boat.  He just bought a new car back home and I'm sure he's got the gadgets.  :)  We saw him a lot besides in the dining room at dinner.  He was very happy all the time.

My Opa celebrated his birthday on the boat.  He had three different occasions of dessert in celebration {all courtesy of the restaurant we were eating in at the time}.  Here are our servers singing to him.  Beni is on the far left, Yasir is on the far right and Pipit has on the white jacket.



Beni and Yasir on our last night:

Geoff and Yasir in Helsinki--Yasir was one of the greeters as we were returning to the boat: