Goodbye Carnival Spirit

This will be my final blogging from the Carnival Spirit. I leave in four days! It truly has been an amazing experience that I will never forget. It hasn't all been fun - ship life is often challenging. But I have so many incredible memories of people, places and other stuff! Where will I go now? Well - I've been offered another Aquapuncture assignment in Australia doing Sidney Aukland Fiji and other places. I really want to go - but I will have to leave December 1 :(
Tough decision...It might seem like a no brainer but there are many things to consider. stay tuned... Tonight we are having a crew party out on the top deck. It should be beautiful out there. In these pictures I am posing in front of my promotional poster on our Spa team night out - lots of fun. Then there's the day old Dia de las Mortes platter and finally a spot in quaint Zihautaneo (sp?) So I am sad to go and happy to have a rest. I'll be with family in LA a few days and then Orange County and then????????????????? love to you

October in Mexico

Wow it has been a while since I wrote. It has been a busy time on and off the ship. How am I feeling? Always a good question to ask. I'm tired... I think this might be my only cruise. It was and is an amazing experience. I am so glad I did it. However, it's a hectic lifestyle and I need more rest and healthier food to be a happy 53 year old! Alaska and Hawaii were unforgetable. We're doing 5 day Mexican cruises right now and it's not working out well for acupuncture and other than Cabo for one day it's not that great. My highlight was getting a boat taxi out to this beach for snorkeling. My favorite fish are here. They are black and white polka dot and are box-like and they are usually so small but here there are some big ones. Before I leave I'll be doing two eight day cruises down to Alcapulco. That should be more interesting. So I'll be getting into San Diego in the middle of November without any idea of my next move. Just trying to stay in each day and do it well. Til next time - much love Karena

Hilo -Volcanos, Macademia, visiting a friend

So my definition of a waste - Karena at the Macadamia Factory with lots of free sampling!!! :) Beautiful day! Andrea and I toured the volcano Park with a major character of a bus driver I had been here 20 years ago on my honeymoon. It looks so different. Amazed by how it goes from Rain forest to desert so suddenly because of the volcanic activity

A night out in the Pacific Ocean

Aloha So the other night I finally dined in the formal dining room which we can do once in a while for free. My new friend Andrea from Romania who is the classical piano player on board invited me. We had a great time. It was formal night so we had to get all dressed up. We were treated like royalty visited by the magician who did amazing card tricks that were so good we (softly) screemed and it creeped us out. We had Lobster tails and the waiters do this whole show and sing...When the moon hits your eye.....then we went to the disco, the comedy club the musical and visited all our friends who perform around the ship in different rooms and went to bed too late of course!!!!

We have 5 seadays - brutal for this aquapuncturist - I work many hours. I'm so excited about Hawaii and getting to go to all my favorite islands. Visiting people at 3 out 4 of them.

Out in the middle of the Pacific I'm thinking about Columbus and Ponce de Leon and Magellan and yeah this is way more luxurious ya know hot tubs, fine dining, casino etc... but still just like this is as close to the army as I'll experience it's also as close to feeling like an explorer!! More like Dora I guess. Mahalo

Vancouver

Just landed in Vancouver - Sad to say goodbye to Alaska - it was so beautiful. Fall hit this week and the light on the mountains was incredible. So I'm waiting to get off the ship for a few hours to see some of Vancouver and then we sail for 5 days to Hawaii. Sea days are tough because I work a lot. It's still strange being in my submarine room and having no idea of what it's like up there... still in my pj's! I know we are docked right in downtown so I will write again from the sea here are some pictures....kg

A Seawoman in Skagway

I'm getting used to the life...and I always want more more...glaciers, dogsledding, kayaking, chotchkas...so here I sit refraining and healing from a headcold at the Seaman's cafe where you can buy anything from your country that you miss. Like if we longed for sleepytime tea or Sugar pops and we were in Istambul (Hi Uriah). As long as you have your Seaman's ID. Who would have thunk....I'd be a seawoman..

So Aquapuncture. I love it. I meet so many amazing people from "Middle America". I give these lectures 4x week. 1-25 people I never know how many. I just show up a few minutes before and I talk about Acupuncture. It's awesome - because I'm so comfortable doing it and then the people come to see me. This morning I did a couples session in our couples massage room.

Social Life...everything happens so late. Last night they had a Crew Dirty Las Vegas Night Party (think - the movie the hangover) starting at 11:30.
well... I was dreaming about it! :) So I do excursions - next weekend i hope to do some helicoptor trips. I was on an incredible trip to see humpbacks. 4 popped up all at the same time very close to the boat. I am traveling around Alaska while I'm having conversations with people from all over the world. Still multitasking...

My minutes up...I miss you friends. Be well Karena

Lady Baltimore

Today I met Lady Baltimore-a bald eagle that was shot and is now blind. She is stunning and huge. She lives in a good home on top of a mountain in Juneau and periodically is taken to a place where she can fly freely without hurting herself. I know I keep promising pictures but with out my computer I can't post yet. I have many of her. It's a tram ride up the mountain and next week we will go very early and hike all around - great views and wildlife. I am finding my place here on the ship. There are so many amazing people to meet everyday. Crew and passengers. My treatment room is awesome because I'm on the 9th deck forward so I'm putting in needles and watching glaciers, sea mammels, and snow covered mountains. Every Tuesday we go through Tracy Arms and the weather has been warm and sunny everytime. There are little glaciers floating and one huge one. My strategy is to do one excursion a week. One you take a helicoptor ride and hike and glacier climb with blades and poles. Another one where you get transported to a mountain and go husky dogsledding. and then there's kayaking, and catamaraning to see orcas and so on....as usual I want to do everything but I'm much better at resting and taking care of myself here. So...the captain wants a treatment and that will be great - he's quite a character and it will be good promotion. I am seeing more people every week and my seminars are going well - public speaking is so easy now - I don't even get nervous....I am very grateful for all of this and sometimes I'm lonely, irritable, and tired... you know HUMAN!!!
Sending my love to all of you. It's hard to write and call everyone but slowly getting better at it. OH btw tomorrow before the lumberjack show (hee hee) in Ketchikan I can receive cell phone calls (10-12 pst)

Juneau & Ketchikan

These two days have been pretty incredible. I've feel like I've landed - it took 12 days but I live here now. Yesterday I met the new Captain who starts on Tuesday. He came to the spa to get a haircut and he looked like any ol' passenger. So when he was introduced as "this is the captain" I thought it was a joke and luckily I held my tongue because I almost said something like yeah and I'm Tenille. Or oh hi I'm the Chief Security Officer...Whew 1 liners have never served me... Last night was crew Bingo. Some of you know I've been dying to play bingo for awhile. Couldn't even get my dad to play at leisure world. So I stayed up until midnight - when it starts!!! and it was big fun. Bingo is the origin of multitasking. Today I hiked in ketchikan and saw a casual bald eagle. Tonight we are dressing up and going to the show. Work is going well - starting to trade with people at the spa. Til next time...sending love and pictures will come soon....kg

Adjusting

still adjusting to ship life - doing acupuncture in the spa -getting my pictures uploaded on to this blog and so on. Today is a day off !!! However my trainer is on board for 3 days (he just showed up!!!!) so I'm working with him for half the day and had to cancel an Alaskan adventure. :(
but...he's good at what he does. For ex. I do 3 presentations a week to promote acupuncture- before speaking with him maybe 1 person would schedule after my talk... but the day after I had 7 people and 5 booked appointments. Every week 2,000 people get on board and I have to create a work week. On tuesday I found 2 models so I will do a demo for people who are touring the Spa when they get on the ship. Then I will treat the models for free...so that's how it works! Love to you all!! Keep the emails and responses coming they mean so much to me!!!!! photo is a rest in Skagway

My first week

Just a short post to let you know I finished my first week and I'm very tired. So much to learn and adjust to. I have the most beautiful view from my treatment room. It's unreal. I will be getting off the ship tomorrow in Seattle. I almost had to (wo)Man the ship in
seattle but that will be next week. Lots of little surprises some good some bad. My computer is a disaster so far -hopefully i can download pictures in the future. next week I'm renting a car in skagway with some people for the whole day to see some wildlife (hopefully bears!!) signing off sending love kg

Here I go!!! In Seattle with Sam (my daughter) and wonderful son-in-law Antoine and new cutie grandson Toby - a beagle/bordercollie mix. CUTEST family! I'm Loving being here while I wait for my ship to come in tomorrow morning - The Carnival Spirit. I'll be the Acupuncturist at Sea for four months - Alaska/ Hawaii/ Mexico. Come cruise with me! Google the ship for my itinerary. 1st part of the journey is eight - 7 day cruises to Alaska. Every Tuesday I'm back in Seattle. Follow my blog and I'll take you with me!!!!!!!!!