Emerald Cove Resort

On May 1, we decided to cruise on over to this park on the Colorado river for 5 nights. This is a membership park with RPI and is located in Earp, Ca. which is in the middle of the desert. This is considered off season as the snow birds have left and the summer boating crowd will arrive on Memorial day. We had full hookups with 50 amp electric and the sites were 20' X 60'. I would like a wider site, but they were adaquate. The resort was pretty baren with only palm trees and olianders for landscaping. Not a speck of grass on the whole property. Waterfront sites were reserved for members who belong to this park. This was overcome by the beautiful clean, clear, blue Colorado river. The staff was very friendly and facilities included a mini golf course, well stocked grocery store, club room with wi-fi access, three pools and two spas which were operating properly and clean. The rest rooms were clean and a bar & grill by the pools had a limited but very reasonable priced fare. Happy hour at the bar from 3 - 6 PM had $1 draught beers. I have not seen that in a long time! This is one of the best parks we have stayed at and I would rate it P****. Air temp was 85 - 100 degrees, and water temp was a surprisingly high 68 - 70 degrees for this time of the year. Buddy went for his swim daily and I joined him twice. We were located only 8 miles from Parker, Az. where there was an indian casino where we went to dinner one night with our new friends Gary & Susan from Arizona. We did take one day to cruise into Parker and check out waterfront houses. We found a 4400 sq. ft. waterfront house with private dock for $650K. Still above my pricepoint, maybe I will buy another lotto ticket. There were some lower priced houses located in the keys, which are 50' wide waterways which you can dock your boat behind your house and cruise out to the river. They were $349K and up. We had a great time. Did I tell you how great it is to be retired?

Caribbean Cruise

We decided to take a cruise to the eastern caribbean to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary. We departed from Ft. Lauderdale, Fl. for seven days. We boarded the Ruby Princess (their newest & largest ship)on our anniversary. This ship is 950 feet long and was loaded with everything you could find in a major city. It had 18 stories which you could walk stairs or take an elevator. Our cabin was located midship on the 10th floor and had a large balcony which we really enjoyed in port and at sea. We elected to eat our supper at 5:30 PM each evening. We had the same table reserved for us at this time. It was a table for just the two of us which was nice since we were celebrating our anniversary. We dined for lunch and breakfast in the same room or one of the other self serve restaurants on board. When we were not eating, they kept us busy with many activities such as musicals, art auctions, several bands, swiming & spa in addition to our island excursions. We stopped at 4 islands; Princess Cays, St. Martens, St. Thomas, & Grand Turk. It was a wonderful cruise and we had no problems with seasickness. The weather was perfect with sunshine and 78 to 82 degree temps. Pictures included here are our ship, balcony, underwater bikes, central staircase, and our diner table on formal night. We lounged around the staircase for activities such as violinist, juggler, champaign waterfall, and other entertainment. They stacked about 750 champaign glasses on top of one another like a pyramid and then continued to fill the top glass until all glasses were full. They then served champaign to the passengers while the captain welcomed us to the cruise. We purchased a tour on these waterbikes in St. Thomas. A 50 or 60 foot boat picked us up at our pier and cruised over to an area where there were many tropical fish and a ship wreck. We spent 30 minutes underwater on the bikes and snorkeled for about one hour. The water was a comfortable 78 degrees. Great tour! We took a bus tour in St. Martens which took us to both sides of the island. One side is Dutch and the other is French. The ship has 4 or 5 swimming pools & spas on board. We did not swim on the ship, but did use the spa one or two days. We did swim in the ocean at Grand Turk however, and waded in the water at Princess Cays where they put on a barbeque. The shows were fantastic and we arrived in the theater 20 minutes early and had our pick of seats. We chose first row in the first balcony and we were eye level to the stage. It was perfect! We purchased some art at the art auction, have received one and the other is on its way from Asia. This was a trip of a lifetime and we truly enjoyed it.