Gluten free cruising on Royal Carribean

Zuki and I. My son cried after the last meal and gave her about 5 hugs. He said Someday. 

Someday. I may see her again . She and Monicia were awesome. 

But this post is about Gluten. Oh the dreaded word that makes many waitstaff cringe cringe cringe ... and my fear of a cruise and not really eating for 7 days or just eating green leafs. 

I will say one of my concerns was my gluten free diet. I was pleasantly surprised and almost shocked at the help in getting tasteful foods. Even to the excited anticipation of french toast room service that is gluten free.

If you are cruising Royal Carribean, they say they handle gluten free, but this could be any level of "handle" which I am completely accustomed to and packed gfree snack bars and had plans of unseasoned salmon and salads. I am the one with the allergy so I never take that out on my waiters, family and friends. If there iis no food. It is okay. I will find something somehow. I knew it would be covered. So I was good to go either way. Boy was I pleasantly surprised.

The first night I sat at a fine dining restaurant on board at our appointed time. The menus came out and I paused. Went to take a peek and wow there was options clearly marked as gluten free. Within the starters and main course menu. Yeah! And they were prime rib and salmon and baked feta cheese salads. Just yum and at dessert there was also a few options to choose from.

At the end of the first meal, the head waiter came over introduced himself and we chatted for quite some time about my gluten allergy and my MIL's need for no salt. Every night before we left the table we were given the next days menu and we could choose then or some time that night and call it in. So fantastic. Really at first I was like how will I decide the night before? I just did. The menu changed nightly and it was super easy to do.

I, also, talked to the head waiter about how I would navigate the offshore experience. At 8 a.m., I received a gluten free sandwich from room service. And on the second day it was accompanied with gluten free french toast. Wow. My guys and  I enjoyed it every morning before meeting everyone for breakfast. Then when at breakfast I would grab some simple items I knew safe. I had to fight for my banana tho in the a.m. very bizarre to travel to these countries that had so many bananas and fingerlings and not purchase them there. They were unbelieveably yummy. I began to pray for a fruit encounters while on our excursions that wasn't a cocktail. So yum.

A little info about taking food off the boat, it is entirely dependent on permission from the port. According to what I was told. If there was permission granted then I would get a sandwich. RC sent requests ahead to the port and handled all of that. And I didn't have to worry.

The bread on the boat was so yummy if anyone ever finds out the RC secret I would love it. I have never had such pleasing gluten free bread. So yum. I had two sandwiches a day to take on shore and couldn't eat them all. I was heartbroken to have to throw the extras away before getting off the boat.

All in all the food was excellent. The only meal I was not fond of was a try at a pasta meal. I know better. Any gluten free person knows that gfree pasta is a beast when serving it right. I was feeling on top of the world, but by the time I had sauce brought for the pasta it was cold and therefor concrete. So avoid the pasta and your gluten free palette will be so pleased.

However before that pasta was a baked feta and tomato salad. I am salvating thinking about it. It was one of my favs from the trip.

Every night I sat down to a plate with three or four types of breads waiting for me. It was heartbreaking to leave them to the trash when I could only eat so much. And I had to watch the roving hands of my son as he tried to sneak the best ones. Which I was also glad to share.

I highly recommend from first hand experience the Jewel of the Sea and their handling of gfree diet.

Enjoy!
Chris

at the Circle Double D .. animal moments

Just some random pics of the going on's here. Weekends and evenings are play time with our animals. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Hubby is fine tuning my paint horse Fleet.  I love this horse. He pushes my buttons sometimes, but mostly he is just a big kid hanging out with me. We have had him for years. Love to watch my hubby ride.

As many know we received some kittens to help us with our growing packrat/rabbit/mouse problem which leads to rattlesnakes. So we were given three kittens. all supposedly males. So before we left on our cruise I told the hubby when we get back we are going to have to take that one to the vet. the right side of him is weird and sticking out. Well when we got back we pulled up in the drive and I said. "Yeah. It appears our Male Cat is gonna have kittens."  :/ always interesting here.

So my son. In case you can't tell. is uber happy about these kittens. He is reading the Warrior series and they just play right into his reading and drawing. I am happy because there are like 30 books in the series and so I will have a little time before we hunt for another one that is in his reading range.

Oh I think they are cute to! I just love animals. 

The best part about having the cats running around outside. As they are not in our house and live in various places around our house. FLOWERS. I have FLOWERS again. This is Pennzoils favorite place to sleep and wait for a bird to come up to the flower pots. The birds have poked a hole in the edge of the screen porch at the bottom. So I left it there for the cat to come in and out under the rod iron. and now the little mice and things don't come in either. yeah! Love flowers.

I hope you liked the pics.
Enjoy!
Chris


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My files in the store can be located here. Thank you for stopping by!

Cruising by the Numbers

Our boat docked in St. Lucia while we took a tour. 

10 days
10 family members
6 nights of family dinners
6 hours of tours
5 ports
5 nights of room service choco chip cookies and milk
2 phenomenal fine dining servers
1 snorkel encounter with Sea turtles
2 nights of serious Uno with Papa, my nieces and son
1 birthday celebration
1 volcano visit that we drove right up into
1 sea urchin sting
1 waterfall
1 gluten free diet
1 salt free diet
1 awesome head waiter
1cruise boat
Dancing
Swimming
Snorkeling
Beaches
Beatlemania

So so so much fun
Unmeasureable fun, laughter and good times.

We are back from our awesome summer trip (which was in June, but I am just finding the time to organize pictures and my thoughts.) I will breakdown our trip a little bit more in a few posts. But the short details are .. we flew out of San Juan, Puerto Rico. Cruised the Carribean on Royal Carribean, Jewel of the Seas. And just had an awesome time! Thank you to my in-laws for such a wonderful time. It was awesome.

My son one night was rambling exhausted from the fun of the day and said "one day I am going to take my kids on a trip like this" . And he promptly fell asleep.

My hubby and I soaked up and enjoyed every minute.

More to come.... But for now. Love my life.

Enjoy!
Chris

Memories of Nuns & Books

I found this old post never got published. so posting it. It must have been from last year some time.
It is more of a journaling post for me. :-)
Enjoy!
Chris


We are working away on Wolf scout electives and one was to cover a book. My son thought this a little bizarre. I had to tell him about Mom's "back in the day" story. I said yes we used to have to wrap all of our books. If we didn't, we were in serious trouble with the Nuns. (Yes I attended catholic school in elementary. Lots of stories there. Haha. Hey now..... Stopping saying that explains alot!!!! Back to the book story.) My son is pondering I can tell as we pick the appropriate book to cover for the elective. He finds one and says. What kinda books did.you read that you had to cover? I said.. well they were school books. We took them home every day and did homework and worked.on them during the day..  Like a book for history, one for math, one for.... He interrupts.. "what you had your own book and you took them home and had to bring them back every day???? " I had to ponder this. My son goes to a school district that really appears to not have text books. I know there are probably some in classes. I wonder if the amount of copies we get home wouldnt it be better spent on a workbook that is my sons where when assessment tests come up we could look back through it.  Maybe when he gets into a higher grade there will be textbooks again. It just lead me to ponder the difference in schooling over time. And while we chatted we finished covering the book for his wolf elective and marked it off in his book for Scouts. "Tight corners" and getting to redecorate the book was always fun. Not getting in trouble with the Nuns was a good thing to. And turning in the book at the end of the year to get new textbooks the next. I noticed today that his book went to school with our brown paper bag cover. He hadnt taken it off. And had decorated it with his own drawings. Kinda cool. Have a wonderful day! Enjoy! Chris

Project - Loft Bed Done.

Projects completed! My son's loft bed. My son has been going through this phase of wanting a desk, needing more room and getting rid of lots of younger toys. So Dad went to work on making his bed into a loft bed. Just awesome. That wall in the back there that is camoflauge-ish was my contribution to the project and I painted the side panels the light green. All the wood used was leftovers from other projects. 

yeah! I love that when we can use pieces we have here to create something. 

To this project I lost my bedside lamp, my fan because it could be screwed to the wall on the top, and the ladder from the RV (which is a wiring harness rack for a server - computer stuff. another awesome upcycle)

So all in all. Awesome project leading into the school year. Cleaning space. making better use of  space. and happy smiles all over. Enjoy!

Chris

To get quick fun updates of things going on, you can join my facebook page.

My files in the store can be located here. Thank you for stopping by!

Hunting & Fishing Card

Today is my Card A Day Blog post. and here it is below.
If you like this card. the file is on sale today. 
for 70% off. Today is the last day. It can be found. HERE



And the best part is I get to celebrate with my Dad this Sunday for his birthday!
In person. So excited to see him. I can't remember the last time we celebrated all together.

This is a hunting card I made for my own Dad.
 It reads:

Hunting & Fishing 

Not much could be better!

Except your

Birthday

&Hunting 

&Fishing

Enjoy!
Chris Durnan

Visual Designs by Chris

To get quick fun updates of things going on, you can join my facebook page.

My files in the store can be located here. Thank you for stopping by!

Huge Fireworks Sale 70% off!!!

For just a few days!! so stop in quick. 

Here is where you can find my files. 

It's a week of celebration! Independence Day! Take a moment to be thankful for our military as we celebrate.  Please be safe and careful on your travels this holiday weekend! Happy 4th of July! Enjoy! Chris

To get quick fun updates of things going on, you can join my facebook page.

My files in the store can be located here. Thank you for stopping by!

Letter to the paint companies..

Dear Paint Company: Posting ads like this showing creativity are awesome! So awesome it makes us want to help your paint chip sample swatches ESCAPE! Escape from the boring store with white cans that hope for color some day. Escape to our craft rooms to be made into beautiful projects.

One day when you wonder where all your paint chips have gone. Just remember... I told you so!

Enjoy!
Chris

Photo taken of ad on back of Family Fun magazine.