Family History

2011 New York
Tanya and Ashton's Wedding
5 Generations
Three Original Turner Sisters in the center
Wilhelmena, Frankie and Nell

2010 Christmas
Brianna, Bee, PeeWee, Theresia and Tiny

John J Walker Sr.
Born and Died in Richmond County, GA
Augusta, Georgia
Oldest known ancestor
B 1832 - D 1900

Ella Maxwell Walker
Born and Died in Richmond County, GA
Augusta, Georgia
Oldest known ancestor
B 1831 - D 1880












Curry Cashew Dinner

 One of our favorite, and very easy dinners to prepare. One of the things that is special about it is that you can change the ingredients based on what you have on hand and you can mix and match to your heart's desire. I will put an asterisk next to the items that you cannot substitute (you won't see many).

1 boneless chicken thigh or 1/2 a chicken breast per person
1 onion (1/3 to 1/4 per person)
1/2 a clove of garlic per person
1 green onion per person
2 tablespoons of cashews per person
1 cube of Golden Curry Sauce Mix per person*
1/2 cup of mixed vegetables or raw vegetables that you like
Chicken Soup (1/4 cup per person)
1/2 tablespoon of vegetable oil per person*
sesame oil
Low Sodium Shoyu*
Coconut Milk (1/4 cup per person)*





Ingredients





I like to take the chicken meat when it is still semi frozen and cube it.
Cube the chicken



Dice the onion
I slice it in half with the skin on.

Then I peel of the outer skin

I use the outer skin to hold the onion while I chop it

Next it's time for the garlic

I put the spatula on top of the clove and gently press down to crack it open

When it's cracked its so easy to remove the skin and the chop it

I slice the green onions

After the pan is hot and you have the oil/s inside, add your chicken

Add your onion and garlic and cook for a few minutes until onions are wilted

Add your frozen mixed (or fresh) veggies and chicken stock and cook on medium until the chicken is cooked.

Add the curry blocks

Disolve the curry into the liquid at the bottom of the pot

pour in your Coconut milk (or evaporated milk, or half and half)

Serve with rice, sprinkle the green onion and cashews on top

Dinner is served
Curry Cashew Dinner

Ensenada - January 14, 2010

I can't belive it's taken me over a month to get to this page!
Ensenada day was awesome. We agreed the night before to all meet for breakfast and then head out as a group.

Breakfast was great except that Nancy was really pissed at the waiter and said he was going to get a bad review because he didn’t hear her order for a 2nd bagel and lox breakfast. He was really cool, he delivered it before she even finished her first one, so it was all good.

We cheerfully headed out around 10am, walking off the ship and heading over towards town. We could see another ship behind ours, and it turned out to be the ship that Natasha was on when she took her world cruise with “Semester at Sea.”

We decided to go to Habana Banana in the main part of town. They have a $20 special where you get unlimited margaritas, tequila, rum, gin, vodka, and tacos – fish, chicken and steak. Unlimited…un….limited….yeah! I should have just paid ala carte because I don’t really drink and I only ate a few tacos. But everyone else broke the bank! I think overall, everyone had about 7-10 margaritas and about 10-12 shots of tequila! Yowser!

After a mishap in the festivities, Des volunteered to go on the bar and get hoisted by her ankles……spun….. and drowned in “Patron.” This is an extra $10 for the Patron and we all enjoyed it. Afterwards, they had everyone jump on the bar and dance to the Village People….Y M C A……

We left for about an hour, walked around and came back for some more, before heading out for our shopping. We lost Theresia, Des and Nancy from the time we left the bar to the time we got back to the ship… but they made it back safely and so did we.

Dinner was wonderful, except Tiny almost passed out and had to go to the cabin just as his dinner arrived and lil Miss Natasha was tipsy and ordered a “Damn” Chocolate melting cake for her dessert. I think Santo’s was shocked.


























For Brianna's take on the trip, read her blog Remote Control: The Split Diaries entry LMFO: The Doorman Week.

Catalina - Wednesday January 13, 2010

Wet, wild and wooley. That is the description of the weather and waters as we awoke to the beauty of Santa Catalina Island.















We met for breakfast and then headed down to get a "tender" aka water Taxi to the port.














The Captain gave us a brief history of the Island during our crossing. It was very nice considering that the tours on the Island were very expensive.

I was surprised to find out that the Casino was not a "Casino" in the terms that we know it, but actually was a dance hall that held up to 6000 persons. Today it is a museum and movie theater.

As we approached the dock, we could see all of the beautiful homes that were perched on the hill overlooking the dock and beach.

After we docked, we stopped to take pictures with one of the locals! Then Theresia, Brianna, Dez and Nancy rushed off to start their shopping. Tiny, Natasha, Pee Wee and I headed off to sightsee.

We walked up a large hill on the right side (North) of town and saw this cute golf cart. One of the cutest on the Island. Of course we had to use the restroom

after our trek.... and nobody, including the photographer is safe when we are in town.... LOL

We took lots of pictures..... before meeting up with the girls and returning to the ship.

For Brianna's take on the trip, read her blog Remote Control: The Split Diaries entry LMFO: The Doorman Week.

A SWELL day at Sea - January 12, 2010

I remember that when we had our last 4 day cruise on the RCCL Monarch of the Seas, we didn't encounter many swells at all. This was not the case on the Elation. Tuesday was a rock and roll day. Three feet swells don't seem so bad in theory, but the actual feeling can leave you feeling pretty yucky! I did really well until about 4:30. Tiny was a trooper and went to Guest Services and brought back free pills for me. 30 minutes later, I started feeling human again.


We spent the day just hanging out and enjoying the days activities. I started my day with the towel folding class. I learned how to make the elephant and the dog, with the help of two stewards. ( and you can learn how too - www.squidoo.com/easytowelanimals )

Later Brianna and I went to the Country Line Dance Class and I almost have that elusive Electric Slide down. I wanted to go to the Cha Cha class, but Tiny wanted to try his personal air freshener in our bathroom and by the time he returned, it would have been hopeless.


After the kids played a round of Miniature Golf, Pee Wee and I had lunch at Tiffany's. We were returning to the Lido deck with our food when we noticed a large crowd around the stage by our table. We found out that Natasha is one of the Judges of the "Hairy Man" contest. What! Loads of attention and free lap dances!


I have found that getting 8 people to the dining room in time for "Elegant" night, is a big challange. Of course, we ended up about 1/2 hour later than planned and so we ended up taking our pictures after dinner.

Elegant Night Dinner was Lobster and Shrimp. Everyone except Brianna and I ordered 2 servings!





























For Brianna's take on the trip, read her blog Remote Control: The Split Diaries entry LMFO: The Doorman Week.

Cruise Day - Monday January 11 2010

I was disappointed with breakfast this morning. This Quality Inn boasted, "Free hot breakfast which includes including waffles, sausage, hard-boiled eggs, fruit, cereals and yogurt." This was one of my reasons for choosing them. Sorry to report, they only provided the waffles, cereals, rolls and toast. There wasn't any fruit, eggs or sausage to be found. Thank goodness free buffets of food were anticipated later in the day.

Disaster struck when Theresia's glasses broke. We drove to the Walmart in National City where they wanted $150 for the least expensive frames to fit her lenses. Superglue saved the day and the break was hardly noticeable.

We arrived at the Cruise Terminal hours ahead of time. Theresia and PeeWee went in search of a place to park ourselves and came back with a porter on a bike. He carried our bags less than 1/2 a block along with Theresia and Dez and told us that we should park across the street and then we could start our embarkation. SO in a nutshell:

- Show your boarding pass and passport to the security at the front of the terminal (outside).

- Herd yourself into the 'cattle" corral inside the "warehouse." There is a nice bathroom located inside of a portable building, inside the warehouse.

- Relocate through the next area which is security. Private security will xray your carry-on baggage and you will walk through a scanner. We were pulled to the side because they were alerted to something in Tiny's bag. They busted us with two bottles, but when they opened the first bottle and saw that it was wine, they allowed us through. Had they checked the 2nd bottle, we might have been in trouble.

- Fill out your H1N1 questionnaire.

- Check in! Just show your passport, the credit card you used to pay for your cruise and get your "sign and Sail" card. (the card you use for every aspect of your cruise.

- Sit and wait......until your section is called. We were in section #2

- When your section is called, you go to a big tent and have your 1st of many pictures taken.

- Proceed onboard! You go to the "Tiffany" Restaurant, deck 10 (AFT) and have your 1st buffet of the cruise.

- Around 3pm, you should be able to check into your stateroom

After we were settled in, we headed off for the safety briefing and Muster Drills before our first dinner onboard. I was surprised that the briefing and Muster Drill wasn't as formal as the previous ones on RCCL. They seemed a bit disorganized and the crew didn't seem to take it that serious, to me. The gang really enjoyed our send off, however I was terrified when the ships horn sounded, right by my ear. I decided that I didn't belong on the top deck, so I made my way to the pool and waited until everyone else caught up with me.

We were scheduled for the 1st dinner at 6:00 at Inspiration Dining room. Since we had 8 in our group, we had our own table.

Our waiter introduced himself, learned all of our names and then proceeded to take our napkins and place them in our laps and give us his dinner recommendations.

I had the Sweet and Sour fried shrimp appetizer, the shrimp cocktail, salad and the flat iron steak for my dinner and the cheese tray for dessert.

After dinner we went and enjoyed the show that they had. It was just a little "sample" of the big shows that we would enjoy later. We really enjoyed the comedian, whose name I've forgotten.

For Brianna's take on the trip, read her blog Remote Control: The Split Diaries entry LMFO: The Doorman Week.