Star Trek: The Cruise VI (1 of 2)

Back again to one of our favorite vacation experiences!  As always, the Star Trek cruise did not disappoint, so much joy and fun from start to finish.

This year we were on our own, without friends to share the experience.  We missed them.  I took the opportunity to see absolutely everything I could fit in, spending free waking hours wandering around to really look at the door decorations this time, just soaking in the whole environment and "trying everything" that was at all interesting.

Because we knew this would be our last STTC, at least for a while.  It was fun to visit the west coast ports (not a fan of the Long Beach departure location, but western Mexico was a neat change).  I was excited to see Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) again, but she couldn't make it, along with several other actors I was hoping would be on board.  Enough things happened that solidified our decision to end the yearly adventure.  Sad but also good to know beforehand so I could really appreciate everything in the moment -- even more than usual.

Walking onto the Star Trek "bridge" (in this case the Deep Space 9 Promenade) on the first day is still an amazing and emotional experience, no matter that this is our 5th Star Trek cruise.  I will miss this!

It's always worth wandering through the buffet restaurant on the first day to see what kind of giant and crazy colorful cake they have cooked and decorated up:

We joined the 5-year "Cruise Collective" this time, which included a welcome mixer (with a free alcohol bonus, always appreciated).  Live Long and Prosper, everyone!

We've watched Amanda working hard to take great photographs every year on the cruise, and we finally got a picture with her.  My camera doesn't do justice to this setting, especially with the cold/rainy weather that kept most events indoors for the first part of the week.  Can't wait to see what the official photographers have in store (we'll be able to download those pictures later) - thank you Amanda!

Cheers to Lower Decks and Beckett Mariner!  Tawny Newsome would be joining us later in the week, and I couldn't wait!  I've started listening to her and Paul F. Thompkins on their "Star Trek: The Pod Directive" podcast and they sound super fun.

While we're near the casino, how about a picture with Quark - he's taller than I expected:

A space theme above the Promenade (and I think this is here all the time, not just for our cruise):

The cast introduction happened indoors this year due to rain.  One of my best pictures of that event happens to be of one of the people we were most happy about - Doug Jones!  He's a talented actor, and it turns out he's also incredibly sweet and genuinely nice.  He offered to hug anyone who wanted one, then hung out with the fans giving hugs - pretty much every day, I think, for probably hundreds of hugs in total.  I was so pleased to get a Doug Hug myself!  Thank you sir!

JT, ever-awesome cruise director, loves to host game shows.  He gathered a particularly charming and hilarious set of actors to play the Match Game for our first evening show:

Door decorations are an annual "thing" and I started roaming the hallways early this year to ensure I had time to fully appreciate them all.  I recognized this theme from some fans of The Delta Flyers podcast that I love to listen to:

A really nice poster that almost looks like real stained glass:

This one personally has meaning to me -- "With great Beard comes great responsibility", and "The only thing better than a Beard are 2 Beards"

A guest makeup session, where you can pay a professional Star Trek makeup artist to transform you into the character of your choice, including a Klingon:

This picture is not particularly interesting, except as a placemark so I would remember to mention that "Admiral, there be whales here!" -- starting from the first morning sitting down to breakfast, we saw big splashes in the ocean that could only be that.  Eventually we saw several actual breeches, helped by the binoculars John had convinced me we should bring along (thank you John!).  Super cool!  One advantage to a west coast cruise in the winter, for sure.

The panel on "Infinite Diversity" was interesting and inspiring, as Star Trek ideals were compared to life in the current day.  Thank you to the SyFy Sista (I should have written down her name), Dr. Mohamed Noor, and Robb Pearlman:

Garrett, Robert, and Ethan are always hilarious, especially on stage together, and Chase had the easiest job of setting them loose and sitting back to watch.  Voyager will always be my favorite!

Todd Stashwick, a surprise last-minute addition to the crew, jumped in to perform the Renewal of Vows ceremony when John Billingsley got sick and couldn't make it on board.  Just a month ago we didn't know who Todd was, and now we're big fans.  Funny and highly likeable, he's completely unlike the captain he plays on Picard.  I should have gotten a picture of him.

Instead, you'll have to look at our faces again - at least there's a pretty cake in this one:

Waiting in line for our Deep Space 9 cast photo, just a random happening on the stairway:

What a wonderful group of people!  I'm not sure ECP knew there would be 10 of them when they gave us this complimentary photo for booking early last year.  Happy to celebrate 30 years of DS9!  And I got to sit next to Garak  :)

Getting a look at the scenery as we sailed into Cabo - that was as close as we got, as we opted to stay on board instead of dealing with the tenders, but at least we saw the arch from a distance:

Not to give anything away about season 3 of Picard, but...

It's almost as if everyone knew we were coming:

On a cruise without kids and with cooler weather, there were zero lines for the water slides.  John and I took that opportunity and did a few runs, whee!

One of John's daily bits of exercise:

It was Knights of the Holodeck theme night, and someone even brought his horse (I'm looking at you, Bogles):

The Rat Pack was back, yay!!  I love this show.  I always assume it's the last time I will get to see them, and then somehow I get to see them again.  And I always enjoy the whole thing.  Y'all are so much fun.

Even the Gorns got into the Renaissance spirit:

Breakfast at the port of Mazatlán:

We planned to get off the ship, but first!  We had a booking at the escape room.  They didn't open it last year, which seemed like a big error with the number of Trekkie geeks on board.  Better luck this year, and we joined a group of folks in this excellent puzzle adventure.  Super fun, well run, unique puzzles, and an excellent guide who helped us when we got stuck.  We were all so pleased to escape with time left on the clock.

All I've got to show for it is a poorly-lit picture, but I highly recommend this activity on Royal Caribbean's Navigator of the Seas.

Proof that we got off the ship at least once:

We took a walk toward downtown, where apparently we missed a big Carnival festival by about a week:

The lovely cathedral, built from light-colored stones and visible from the ship:

The north side of town has a wonderful walking path, where we came across a statue of Jacques Cousteau telling us which way to go:

A high diver just happened to leap from the cliff as we were walking by, and my goodness that doesn't look like the most obvious place to jump from:

A Mexican mermaid:

We enjoyed all the public art, including...I'm not sure who this is, but he's pretty cool:

Stay tuned for the second half of STTC:VI, our final voyage.

Running around southern AZ

Greetings from Tucson!  We're having fun with our little adventures around town this winter.  Some actual running, some otherwise.

And a mural here and there:

I had the chance to see the Desert Museum (after John and his parents raved about it) and we made sure to see the Raptor Free Flight, yay!

I love ravens - so smart and fun to watch.  Not a surprise that they seem happy to fly around a crowd in exchange for treats:

We saw our first caracara in Texas with Mom, and now we've seen another one, cool birds!

What a fun little otter!  He/she rolled around, played with a stick, and entertained us for a few minutes, thank you sweetheart:

You lookin' at me?

Joshua Trees and one of many artful butterflies:

The indoor demonstration featured a colorful macaw that roamed all over the tree and squawked:

So many photogenic desert plants:

Organ pipe cactus (and there's a national monument of the same name that we'd like to visit):

That was just a small % of the huge variety of interesting plants and animals we saw that day.  Sonoran Desert Museum = highly recommend.

Now for some actual running - I signed up for the Oracle 50-mile race, north of the Santa Catalina mountains and mostly on the Arizona Trail.  I wasn't sure I was ready for more than 50 kilometers, but the last 19 miles went quite well and I was so pleased with my legs.  It was a gorgeous day for running and I loved the whole trail.

A couple of race pictures - Run Long and Prosper:

Photographer = Damion Alexander

Coming into an aid station:

Photographer = Bob Arendt

It was dark when I finished but at least not too late in the evening, yay!

Photographer = John Beard  :)

Apparently one of the biggest happenings in Tucson is the yearly Gem and Mineral Show (who knew?).  We have been watching tents go up almost since we arrived in October, and it took over many parking lots and even motels near downtown.  John and I both wandering through it a bit here and there just to get a sense of the spectacle.

One example (out of many, many different things to see):

They had everything from small stones and jewelry for purchase to amazing works of art:

OK, I've seen some sparkly things, I think I'm good (at least for this year)!

The Presidio does walking tours downtown, and we were excited to get a guided tour of some of the murals.  It was neat to learn some background and stories about the creators of the giant wall paintings we have been seeing:

A pixilated picture:

Apparently Linda Ronstadt is from Tucson, so this is an homage to her (among other panels that get repainted once a year in a single October weekend - but Linda stays, thankfully):

Back to running (I must have been reasonably recovered from the 50-miler by this point) - our friend Trey had mentioned the Bear Canyon Loop from Sabino Canyon and I wanted to check it out.  Heading up the canyon, there are a ton of beautiful colorful rocks to admire.  My kind of rocks, I think, more so than gems:

The creek had running water, which is apparently rare except during winter rains.  The pools at Seven Falls are really pretty:

And the Seven Falls themselves are awesome!  So much that I took John up there the following week so he could see them.  Gotta go before they dry up:

Near the top of the loop, briefly on the AZT again.  Fun loop, thank you Trey for telling us about it!

Our friend Taylor and her dog Basil came down from Flagstaff to visit and enjoy some warmth (or at least, warmer than Flag right now).  Yay for hiking with friends!

And finally, an FKT attempt for the first time in a year!  I returned to the National Trail over South Mountain in Phoenix to try the out-and-back version.  My most recent FKT was a one-way (since beat by a faster runner) so I was familiar with the trail.  Until recently there wasn't a female out-and-back time, but then 2 ladies set FKT's on the same day in January.  

OK, well, Krista's time looked similar to what I might be able to run, so I figured it was worth a try.  30 miles would be great training, regardless, and the weather was perfect.  So I drove up to Phoenix, stashed a water bottle on the west end, and drove to the eastern trailhead to start:

No time to spare, so I took only a few photos, mostly "on the run", and many of them at an angle:

Slight pause for this one, as I enjoyed the views of the city from up on the ridge:

What a great trail, plenty of variety, occasionally lots of rocks, some really runnable sections, and the kind of desert landscape I enjoy strolling (or sometimes running as fast as I can) through:

I made the turn-around in about 10 minutes faster than my one-way time from last year, that was a pleasant surprise.  The climb back up to the ridge is a haul in this direction, just keep moving those legs.

My return trip was slower, happily not significantly so.  I felt I had an extra second or two to grab a picture of Telegraph Pass with the stone ruins in the foreground and the "visible from everywhere" towers in the distance:

What a beautiful, cool, slightly windy, sunny, blue sky day!  Could not ask for better weather.  One last shot of the trail and Phoenix in the distance:

I was so pleased to run fast enough for an FKT, and even break 7 hours with some running at the end that wasn't strictly necessary... except I decided it would be nice to break 7 hours.

Hey, it's Tug-E's first FKT run!  A photo to celebrate:

That's about it around here for now.  We've got a bunch of orienteering going on and then a Star Trek cruise vacation, happy days!