Polas on the Go

Guest Blogger.... Weezie! (On surviving a visit with the Pola Family!)

 
It is often said that what you remember about someone is not what they say or do, but how they make you feel.  I mention this because arriving in Barcelona after a long flight and having caught an airplane cold, I went through the arrival gate to be embraced by Nate and Gavin with greetings of "I can't believe you are really here", hugs and kisses, and smiles and giggles -- a welcome that I am sure will last a lifetime.  The beauty of it all was that they were as happy to seem me as I was to see them.  And so our adventure began.

Liz,  Nate, Gavin and I then went to the hotel apartment where I received another great welcome from Mike and Brock and a sampling of Spanish foods.  Then off to bed and up bright and early the next morning to board  the ship and start our Eastern Mediterranean/Egyptian cruise.  Talk about something for everyone... this had it all (relaxation, kids-club, acupuncture, massage, rock climbing, Spanish lessons, entertainment, offshore excursions etc.  In Egypt we rode camels and drove in jeeps racing over the sand dunes ... VERY FUN! Oh yes, we also saw the Pyramids and the Sphynx.

Together we celebrated Liz's 40th birthday, my birthday (number may be known to some, but not disclosed here), and Thanksgiving.  On Thanksgiving, we missed Cynthia and her family and thinking of them, we participated in our family ritual of holding hands and saying what we were grateful for.  Brock, 3 years old, liked this so much that he initiated it at mealtimes for the duration of the cruise!  The boys gave me the greatest gift of all ... each of them having one meal with me alone so that we could have one on one time, as well as family time.

After 12 days we disembarked back in Barcelona feeling full in so many ways (or is it weighs?).  Four more days of seeing sights in Barcelona and then poof---It felt like I had just arrived and now I was about to leave.  The highlight of it all was being together and seeing how much Liz, Mike, Nate, Gavin, and Brock were thriving and enjoying this unique and special time in their lives.  I felt blessed and grateful to be included in a part of their adventurous journey and headed home with a full heart knowing that all is well.

Louise

Port Stops: Sicily and Cairo by Nate and Gavin

 
 
 
 
(Gavin) On the cruise my least and most favorite stops were:

The least: Catacombs in Sicily….the most scariest place I have ever been to .. a graveyard. PS It  
was Weezie’s birthday when we went there.

The Most: The Pyramids in Cairo, Egypt. I mean real pyramids, not the 6’5” little pyramids. I mean the look up stone-by-stone, into the sky pyramids.

First, let’s start with my least favorite to get it over with. We walked in the Catacombs not really knowing what it was going to be. Dad and I thought it was going to be at least less scary than London Dungeon (but that’s a whole different story).  We walked in about 50 feet and there were swinging doors. We walked in and saw our worst nightmare. Da a dum…  We saw skeletons hanging on the walls and graves at our feet, real live skeletons…that were dead. First we thought they were fake and then Mom read us a part that said there were REALLLLLL.  We were very freaked out but I kind of studied them… a little bit. The skeletons were very small and some of them were wearing clothes and I felt so sad for a little girl.  After Mom read that part, we raced out of there as fast as we could but Dad stayed behind because he is a dark, dark man.  A VERRRRRY DARK MAN!

(My Mom made me make the picture below really small because she is still freaked out by it.)

 

Now, the pyramids… one of the most awesome things I saw. We docked the ship for two days in Egypt. One of the reasons I didn’t want to go to Cairo was because we had to take a three hour drive each way from Alexandria. We took that long, long drive and then we came to one of the Pyramids… The Pyramid of Giza. It was so cool but everyone was saying “oh can you please buy this… one euro, okay 50 cents” but we ignored them all. Finally, we walked there and, oh my gosh, that was so cool. That was the first time I ever realized that inside the pyramid must be hollow inside. How do they do it? It is really a Wonder of the World!

We saw the Sphyinx. It was very cool. It was made out of rock but the texture was really cool. I didn’t get to touch it, though. It did look kind of like a lion-headed man. I thought it was going to be a lot bigger but it was actually small.

 

We went inside of one tomb. Before I didn’t notice anything and then I realized there were hyrogliphics carved into the stone and some of them were even painted. I wonder how they got them so high up since they didn’t have the same ladders back then.

Well, that was partof  Egypt. Nate will tell you about the rest.

 
(NATE)  So, after we saw the tombs, we took about a 40 minute bus ride to ride jeeps  and camels.  The jeep ride is a sand ride that we went on that takes you to all the camels in the middle of the desert. It was the best part because it was like going down a roller coaster on the sand. You would never be allowed to do that in the USA. The reason why it was so fun was because you went down the sand so fast you felt like you were going the speed of light. We had a race with all the other jeep drivers and we saw the dessert and a bunch of pyramids with the sun setting behind them.  There was one sand dune we tried to go up but we didn’t get to the top so the driver tried again but then had to go around. Brock loved this ride. He was standing up pretending he was surfing.

The jeep dropped us off at the camel rides. Brock’s camel was named Mickey Mouse. Then we learned that they were all named that except Dad’s was Michael Jackson. And, guess what, there were 18 other Michael Jacksons.  We rode the camels for about 30 minutes.

 

 A camel ride is different  than a horseback ride because the camels are taller and bumpier so if you fall you would get more hurt but less because you are on sand dunes. Future reference: when you get on the camel lean way back because if you lean forward you fall off.  

I really liked Cairo. The camel ride, the pyramids and the jeep ride were my favorite part of the day but, honestly, we were excited to get back on the cruise and play with our new friends.  

 

Cruising to Egypt WITH WEEZIE! (By Nate)

When we heard the news that Weezie was coming in less than two days  we were literally freaking out, boucing on the chairs. When we went to the airport, which felt like centuries, I decided to make a sign and hold it up but Gavin wanted to just run into the arrivals to greet her. We were so excited! A few minutes later, as Gavin said, we realized she had as much luggage as all of us combined!!

  

The next day we left for the cruise. It was by far the best cruise I have been on. Before we scheduled the cruise, it didn’t look that fun for kids. It looked like gambling and poker and adult stuff. But then when we got on we saw it had a lot of awesome games and activities for children.  When we were boarding, we only saw two kids who were just glued to their video games. Once we got into our state room and we looked on the balcony we met a great new friend of ours named Will. My mom said that she was pretty sure we would become good friends and we did.  Their cabin was exactly one floor below ours so we never had  any trouble finding them. There were actually lots of fun kids on the cruise.

On one of the nights they had a magic show. They called up for volunteers and I really wanted to be one. I got to go up and did a fencing act because I did take fencing once at Cathedral. I picked a card and put it back in the deck with out him seeing it. He threw the deck in the air and stabbed one card with his sword and it happened to be my card.  The trick was really cool and I still have the card.

Twelve Night Cruise

A few pics from our really, really fun cruise to Egypt. 

 

We were all looking forward to being in one spot for awhile. Or, at least, having our stuff in one spot and not having to pack and repack for twelve days.  The cruise far exceeded my expectations - the boat had tons to do (sports, a gym, endless shows, access to the concierge lounge, mini golf, rock climbing) and our suite was spacious and really comfortable.  The kids were thrilled with a chance to store up on American food and play at the "Ocean's Kids Club".  They made a bunch of new friends and we hardly saw them when we were at sea.

  Hanging around the boat:

  

 
 

  
 

  

 
 

Port of call included:

Palermo, Sicily > Athens, Greece > Rhodes, Greece > Alexandria (and Cairo), Egypt > Valletta, Malta