What's Brewing With Janeric?

Hi All-

I wanted to let you all know that my fabulous husband and I have teamed up for some blogging. We have started a new blog: "What's Brewing with JANERIC?" which you can find at

www.janericbrew.blogspot.com

Or by clicking on the blog links I have listed here. I will of course remain "Jano Fabulous" and Eric's blogging handle is "Brewmaster E". I will still blog here now and then, but most updates that concern "us" will likely be posted on the janeric blog. Hopefully now that there are two authors we can keep you better updated.

Wedded Bliss

So I am finally getting around to blogging. Needless to say things have been a little busy lately. Eric and I got home very late last Tuesday night, and getting up for work on Wednesday was a very rude awakening. We have been home for nearly a week now, and things are starting to get back to normal.

This is how the last few weeks have gone down. I headed to C-U/Gibson City after work the Wednesday before the wedding, and Eric came down on Friday. We went to get our marriage license (perhaps the most pleasant and organized governmental form/requirement/license thing ever) and then the two of us had a nice relaxing lunch and a beer at Crane Alley. In the evening we met everyone for the rehearsal, again relatively relaxed and painless, and then we all headed to Jupiter Pizza & Billiards for the rehearsal dinner. It was delicious and lots of fun to get our friends and families together.

Saturday dawned bright and sunny, and turned out to be the only good weather day for weeks. Nikki and Jenn came to my hotel room to get ready, and my hairdresser, Beth, did everyone's hair. Beth totally rocks... everyone LOVED their hair. We all headed out to my friends Jeanne & Ted's house in St. Joseph for family/wedding party pictures. The weather was great, a tiny bit cool but pleasant and sunny, and their Victorian house made for some great photo ops. Our photographer was a trooper and managed to get all the pictures we wanted and then some. We can't wait to see them. Pictures went remarkably smooth given the amount of people involved. And Jeanne & Ted get major kudos for letting us use their house, especially since Jeanne had been working her butt off all week as our florist.

The families headed off to the wedding, while the wedding party hung around for a few more pictures and made another picture stop at the arboretum. It was just amazing how wonderful the weather was... God so blessed our day in many ways. The ceremony was wonderful... thanks Pastor Andy! Jeanne amazed us with all of the flowers, and everything went perfectely. On the way to the wedding Jenn & Nik asked me if I was nervous, if I was going to cry etc. and I said I was totally fine but who knew what would happen when we got down to business. I could be the most stoic bride ever, or be bawling like a total baby. Turned out I was a total "swayer" (this doesn't surprise me... I love to fidget) and I was relatively calm and totally enjoying it. Eric was a little misty-eyed at first and I was fine until I got a little weepy during our vows, but Eric just squeezed my hand and just gave his "I've gotcha" look and all was well.

The reception was great fun, but pretty much a total blur. My friend Kortny gave us some great advice that she and her husband, Jeremiah received... to sit back at the reception together and just try to soak it all in since it all goes so fast. Right after we finished dinner, while everyone else was finishing up Eric and I did just that. We sat there with our heads together and just looked out over the room at all of our friends and family. After dinner the DJ kicked up the tunes and we all danced the night away. It was THE best day ever!!!!

Sunday morning dawned all too soon and Eric and I hit the road just after 6 a.m. to drive to Indy to catch our plane to Ft. Lauderdale (via Detroit...ughh... thanks Northwest). The early flights were a blessing as we left before the snowstorms arrived. We got to our hotel in Ft. Lauderdale just after 5, went downstairs for nice dinner and then crashed for the next 13 hours. Monday we got up, had breakfast and then headed to Port Everglades. We got there just after noon, and were on board enjoying a fruity cocktail just after 12:30. This was Eric's fifth cruise, but my first. We have decided... it won't be our last... I HEART CRUISING!!!!

It really was a relaxing vacation. Our cabin wasn't huge, but far bigger than I was expecting and had lots of storage space. I got my sea legs relatively quickly and had no sea sickness. One night the seas were a tiny bit rough, and I felt just a little dizzy so we skipped the show, but other than that all was great.

Our first night at dinner we had three other couples at our table. Two of the guys talked real estate all night, and we were unable to chat with the one couple we may have had some common interests with. It wasn't all that great, and we managed to scare everyone off. One couple moved to the early seating as she didn't like to eat late, the one couple requested a table for two and we never saw the other couple again. It worked out for the best because the next night we were seated with Todd (just a few years younger than us) from Toronto, Canada, his "mum" Lynn and his 14-year old daughter, Anna. They were delightful and we all enjoyed dinner together all week and hung out some on the Lido Deck as well. The third night we were joined by Georgeen and Claudia from Baton Rouge. They worked at a Dr's office together for more than 25 years, and their employer had given each of them a cruise. They had been placed at "romantic" table for two and that totally weirded them out, and didn't allow them to meet new friends so they requested a table change and joined us the rest of the week. They were delightful and the seven of us had the best time at dinner each night. Our waiter, Alexander was great and we became very attached to our busboy/assistant waiter, Sigit, and our "wine guy" aka beverage server, Edwin. The food was amazing and the service impeccable... I miss having them put my cloth napkin in my lap.

The shows each night were lots of fun, and Eric and I often stopped at Sam's Piano Bar after each show and got to know the piano player, Peter Rossetti. We were there the first night and he chatted with us, and then remembered us every night and always played us a Billy Joel song when we came in. The "Piano Man" was great, and at the end of the week he got a great tip from us, and we came home with his CD.

The ports of call were great. After two and half days at sea our first port was Panama. In Panama we took a bus trip along the canal to the Pacific Ocean, stopping to see several ships travel through the Miraflores Locks. Our guide gave us all sorts of U.S. history about the Canal Zone. We returned to the Atlantic Ocean via a train ride along the canal. The canal was really cool and it was great to see two oceans in just over an hour.

The next day we stopped in Costa Rica. Our excursion to the coffee plantation was cancelled because it didn't fill up, so instead we took another excursion where we stopped at a banana plantation, took a short train ride along the edge of the rain forest, and then a boat ride along the river. The boat ride was awesome... we saw sloths, howler monkeys, iguanas, bats, egrets, a cayman and lots of birds. It was even fun when our boat lost its steering and everyone starting singing "Row Row Row Your Boat" as we waited for another boat to pick us up. After a mini-buffet of fresh local fruits (the best watermelon I have ever had) we headed back to the ship.

The next day we were at sea, and then on Easter Sunday we stopped in Belize. We took another river cruise where we saw a crocodile, manatees, more bats and monkeys and then had lunch and a Belikin beer at a local resort before heading to Altun Ha, which are Mayan ruins. Altun Ha was very interesting and impressive but we mostly admired from a far as it was about 95 and humid and the heat was definitely getting to me.

We only saw our cabin steward twice the entire week, but he kept our cabin spotless. And he left us a new towel animal every night.

One day we took a wine/food pairing class at the ship's supper club. It was lots of fun and we learned a lot. The somalier who taught the class was very interesting. No worries, beer is still our favorite... but we did enjoy wine with our dinner every night. On Saturday night we went to the supper club, Nick & Nora's, for dinner. There was a fee to go but all of the food was free. It was a great way to celebrate our one week anniversary. The service was above and beyond and we shared a great bottle of wine... and the somalier remembered us from the wine/food pairing a few days before and was impressed I remembered what he taught me. We had surf-n-turf and it was an amazing lobster and one of the best filets I had ever had. The dessert was by the far the best I had ever had. I can't begin to describe it, but it was four different chocolate tortes/parfaits/desserts. It was incredible.

By far the best part of the cruise was spending 8 days with my husband. We did lots of things, but also spent lots of time just hanging out together. Talking, sharing, dreaming... I am so excited we get to spend the rest of our lives together.

Oh, one bonus of the cruise was taking "Flat Stella". My friend Sidney's 2nd grade class is learning about geography by sending their "flat friends" all over with various friends and family members. Nik took Stella to Florida for spring training and we took her on the cruise. Stella loved it. Besides the pictures for Sidney and her class we took a few pictures for Sidney's mom & dad, Jenn & John's entertainment. Let's just say Stella enjoyed the bar :)

Stayed tuned as we are working on blog for both Eric & I. I will keep you posted as to its development... no pun intended.