we just got back on saturday from our 5 night cruise out of galveston, texas on the carnival ecstasy.

wow. we all (the whole family of five) had a super time on the cruise. it really was a very relaxing and fun trip.

the food was endless and luckily i only gained back 1.5 pounds! i mean really endless.

the buffet food was pretty good, but nothing to get excited about. where the cruise line really shined was in the main dining room. the food was fabulous. the service was even better. we had a waiter from peru named martin (see photo of martin with the boys) who was really spectacular.

keep in mind that the boys (i have been told that i am not exactly the best here) are usually a bit to handle all together and they can pack away a lot of food (hmmm, i thought you were supposed to get fat when you ate that much) when given the chance.

well, the cruise was the ultimate test of that.

see, in the dining room, you can order as much as you want. you want two entrees, no problem. you want five appetizers, whatever. i think many people have no clue about this when they are new to cruising.

so ruthie and i had been before and we told the boys they could order as much as they wanted.

well, i think our average (in fairness, ruthie pretty much stuck to a few appetizers and one entree) was seven appetizers and 2.5 entrees per person over the entire cruise for dinners. plus there was one night when jon, ruthie and i went to the midnight extravaganza (with the ice sculptures and food carvings) so that day the three of us had 4 meals!

we asked martin who had ordered the most food in the dining room and he said "your table". then we asked him who ordered the most food on the whole cruise and he said "your table". well, i guess we got our money's worth out of this cruise. martin, you were great. he told us which food was the best and never flinched when we ordered 11-12 items overall each.

so besides the food, we woke up for early morning sunsets, told long walks on the decks, used the steam rooms and saunas, went to shows, karaoke, comedy shows and had a great time.

the ship stopped in mexico in the yucatan at a port called progresso and at cozumel.

in progresso we took a local bus to the capital merida (21 miles) and walked around among the true locals far away from all the tourists. had real mexican tacos in a market and did a bit of shopping.

in cozumel (which ruthie and i had been to the day after we got engaged) we got a cab to the mr. sancho beach and swam in the gulf, played ping pong, buried jon in the sand, had a few beers and ate a bit. it was very relaxing and calming.

on the way back from galveston, we dropped david off at a&m, visited with amy for 5 minutes and came home.

now they all want to go on another cruise.

we just got back from milwaukee, wisconsin (see really good family vacation to milwaukee) and i had promised my lovely wife ruthie that i would post a picture of our friend bart koenig as "soon as we got back".

yup, this is a honey do.

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we met bart years ago because his company, velocitie integration, inc. was doing business with ruthie's city of cedar hill, texas. we went to dinner then and then again when he was in town the next time a year or so later.

so, when we went to milwaukee, ruthie called bart and he happened to be coming from green bay down near milwaukee for business when we would be there. so we met for breakfast and took this photo.

good seeing you again bart. maybe one day we will get to meet your family too.

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it's just 74-1/2 hours until we board the carnival ecstasy in galveston, texas for a 5 night cruise with our entire family of 5!

we have been looking so forward to this cruise for a long time and now it's almost time to actually start packing and making final plans for the voyage.

it will be my 3rd cruise, the second one for ruthie and the first cruise ever for josh, david and jon.

note: for sanity reasons, we opted for our own cabin and the boys will be sharing a cabin. it's a big ship and we can get lost (see large image) if the noise level gets too high.

ruthie and i plan to just relax, read and explore the ship, plus take many cool shipboard photos. i'm bringing my small sony portable and my Canon DSLR camera, so i should be able to get lots of great shots.

josh, david and jon have vowed to gobble down a huge share of the vast amounts of food on the ship. there is a 24 hour pizza joint, a (read a review) very good hamburger stand, buffets and formal dining available for all to enjoy. they also plan to spend many hours in the workout room to balance this out.

more on the cruise after we get back on august 23rd.

i just got back from a wonderful family vacation to milwaukee, wisconsin for a big party for my uncle nate taffel's 80th birthday.

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that's jon, ruthie and i with lake michigan in the background.

there were over 100 people at the party and it was great seeing many family members and friends i have not seen since last year when ruthie and i went for nate's wife's (my aunt mur) 75th birthday. it was sorta de javu in that it was in the same place and a lot of the same people were there.

a couple of observations from the trip...

the airline portion, on american airlines, was pretty much a pain in the you-know-where. between the security deal, taking off my shoes, dealing with my laptop (more on that in a sec) and trying to avoid checking luggage (because of time, not the surcharge, we booked before the surcharge applied) the whole deal was yucky.

it was one of those tiny jets for like 80 people where they squish you in like sardines into 3 seats across (1 and 2). very small space for a 2 hour flight.

on the way back i got up to go to the lavatory and 2 rows from it, this older lady gets up and goes in, making me stand there like a moron while she went in and out 4 times (she could not figure out how to close the door to get the light to go on).

the other yucky part was the baggage. they take your bag at the end of the jetway (whoever thought up that term?), put a red tag on it and give it back to you after the flight lands.

fine. but, the plane lands in dallas and 50 people are standing in the jetway waiting for the bags and the door is open and it is 102 degrees outside. it was like an oven waiting for those bags. shame on you american airlines.

ruthie and i are just about to leave for the airport for a trip to milwaukee, wisconsin (i was born there) for my uncle nate taffel's 80th birthday celebration.

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that's nate being very musical from last year's trip there for his wife, my aunt mur's 75th birthday celebration. we went over to my cousin jimmy guten's place and they put on a nice little concert in the backyard where even my mom played the piano in a set.

we have everything packed in 2 very small suitcases so that we won't have to wait for luggage in chicago as we still have to drive from chicago to milwaukee once we get off the plane and it's going to be pretty late when we get to my aunt renee and uncle jack dygola's house to sleep.

more from milwaukee soon (yes, i brought my trusty powerbook g4 along)