Famille Du Pentium

First things first, on our first day at sea we (Marla and Mike) renewed our wedding vows.  This year marks our 18th anniversary.  My (Mike’s) plan was to schedule a cruise for the two of us on our 20th anniversary (something we intended to do back when we got married) and do the renewal of vows thing then.  However, since this cruise was scheduled for this year, and there’s very little chance we’re going to be able to take another cruise in 2012, we decided to do it now.

Princess Cruises offers a renewal of vows package that includes the ceremony, officiated by the captain (Andrew Proctor in our case), flowers, champagne, and some memorial items like keepsake glasses and a certificate.  The ceremony was coordinated by passenger services rep. Liz, who did an outstanding job.  It was well worth the cost.

Ethan served as ring bearer, and Justin wanted to carry flowers so he was the flower boy.  Aaron was Mike’s best man, and Lisa was Marla’s matron of honor.  The standing party consisted of everyone in our party.

After the ceremony, we retired to the Crown Princess dining room called Crown Grill, which is basically a steak house.  There, our champagne was served and we enjoyed an excellent meal with even better service by Camilla, who basically hand fed Justin his trout and didn’t take any guff from our party about “Oh, I don’t want to eat desert!”

As far as pictures go, we’re a bit out of order here – the renewal of vows was on the first sea day, which was actually about 10 days into the cruise.  But I felt that this post deserved top billing, and I’ll post more later.  Pictures from our day at sea and renewal of vows is here.  The pictures of the rocks are the islands we passed at sea while passing over northern Scotland from Glasgow to Invergordon.

Reviews, pictures, and general trip minutiae will follow.

So we’re going on vacation next week.  Above is a map of our cruise – the Princess British Isles Cruise.  Here’s what we’ll be doing:

• 1 Week in London: Sherlock Holmes Museum, Thames Duck Tour, Hop-on/Hop-off Bus Tour, Berkhemsted, Harry Potter Tour, Museum of Transportation, Tower of London tour, and Jack the Ripper walking tour.
• Guernsey / St. Peter’s Port: Walking tour of Castle Coronet
• Cobh / Cork: The Monks, Vikings, and Normans Tour (606 – 1690).
• Dublin: 1916 Rising Tour
• Liverpool: Steam Train / Chirk Castle Tour
• Belfast: Hop-on, Hop-off Bus Tour
• Greenock / Glasgow: Private tour of Clan Maxwell’s Caerlaverock Castle (my grandmother was a Clan Maxwell)
• Day at Sea
• Invergordon: Loch Ness and Castle Urquhart
• South Queensfferry / Edinburgh: Hop-on, Hop-off Bus Tour
• At Sea
• Le Havre / Paris: Louvre tour, lunch at Eiffel Tower, Paris city tour
• Southampton / Travel Home

We have a full itinerary!  I’ll post updates as I have time and internet access.

First, we marched in the Skokie 4th of July Parade, in the Skokie AYSO float.

Then, we went to the 4th of July festival and fireworks show.  You’ve seen fireworks before, so here are the kids.

I’ve hesitated to spread this via email, but blog posts are different.  You can always ignore it :).

A grass-roots effort is being mounted to bring the World Cup to the USA in 2018 or 2022; the point is that American viewership of World Cup games is the highest that it’s ever been, interest in Soccer is at an all-time high, and America would be a great host.

It also helps that Landon Donovan, who scored the winning goal against Algeria in this year’s World Cup, and who also played AYSO Soccer, is involved in the effort.

If you want to submit your electronic signature to the bid, go here: http://www.gousabid.com/page/s/sticker/.  Signing up will put your email address on their (non-sell) list, which you can then unsubscribe from.  Seattle, WA – my old home and home to my mom and brother, and I think a cousin, is one of the cities in the running to host the games.