Trip to Vancouver BC

This is my hotel, The 4 Points Sheraton. Very nice. Oh look at that, rain... never expected that. Is that a big old Bonzai tree?!?! Bonzai Danielson!!
Photo of the doctor's office for the maritime medical exam. Yep a clinic, but I dig the decor.
Downtown Vancouver - old church building (I think) - thought Judi would like this
Everything here is Asain influence - even the smoking area outside the hotel as seen here. Also, the whole city smells like Panda Palace Restaurant. Not a bad thing, but where is a hamburger already? 50% of the city's signs are written in Chinese (now I can figure out what my tattoo really says.. ha ha)

And now the blog..................

Well it has started, my first day away from San Diego and already full of excitement. The day started early with a flight from San Diego at 630am on Alaskan Airlines. I got to fly first class, and wow! I mean this was really exciting for me considering my airlines experiences are usually Southwest. The seat was awesome, a big leather reclining seat, and personal attention I have never gotten on Southwest. It's kinda cool when the flight attendants address you by name. Once we took off, we got breakfast; a warm cinnabon cinnamon roll with melted icing running down the sides. On the side there was a raspberry yogurt, and the thing that tripped me out the most was they gave me real utencils! I had a real knife on an airplane! I know most of you are thinking this is a waste of your time to read, but I was stoked on the whole experience. While 90% of the plane is eating peanuts and Cokes out of plastic cups, I was having a great breakfast with actual ceramic plates and real utencils. The flight was smooth and uneventful. Very relaxing! Sergio told me he hates flying coach now and it is hard to fly if he cannot fly first class; now I understand.

The first plane dropped me off in Portland for a plane switch to a puddle jumper to Vancouver. This plane sucked. Twin prop loud, hot and muggy, and I got stuck next to a 6'4, 280 lb guy, and I was stuck with the window seat. Getting to the plane was outside and of course it was raining. San Diego yesterday was 82 and sunny all day long, here:50 and rain. Anyhow, when I got out of the terminal I realized I forgot my jacket in the back seat of the BMW when Judi dropped me off this morning. Looks like I will be running into port for a jacket in Juneau. The plane was turbulent and tight, and once it landed in Vancouver I was one of the first people off. I got all the way to the Customs area (those of you who have flown in Vancouver know how far this is) I realized I left my cell phone on the plane. I turned around and ran about 1/4 mile through halls and doors that say do not enter, and ended up getting lost in the terminal. Now let me Family Guy this for a second. Have you seen the episodes of South Park or Family Guy where they bag on the Canadians for security lax procedures? Ha ha, yep.... I never got stopped once. In fact, I exited a door once I was lost inside a security zone and ended up locked out on the tarmack!!! I tried to flag 2 people down to figure out where my plane was and they wanted nothing to do with me. I thought this was crazy, USA is so Nazi about the airport security that you can't even pass gass without going to secondary and here I ran through 5 security blocks and was never approached. Finally I ended up seeing my plane and was walking out on the tarmack where the guys direct the planes in!! One guy from Southwest Airlines even told me, "Hey move out of the way, a plane is coming in here". I finally saw my plane and went over and walked up the little stairs. I scared the pilot and co-pilot and they asked me who I was and my intentions for getting on the plane. I said I forgot my cell phone and they quickly helped me find it. The captain asked how I got all the way to the plane on the tarmack without escort and I told him the story. He thought it was also disturbing. Anyhow, I made it to Customs and pleasantly they are pretty squared away. Here obviously it is reverse of what I am used to. Not to say we don't have good security at Port of San Diego, but the Port security here is like the airport. I guess Canada does have one thing straight.... maritime rules over aviation!! ha ha just kidding!

The City of Vancouver is odd in nature. For those from San Diego it seems to be Mira Mesa meets Hillcrest or if you are a Los Angelino, San Gabriel meets West Hollywood. The bottom line... many bad drivers and a freak show they should charge you to watch!! The taxis are the same as anywhere else in the world. As soon as you get in they guy calls you his friend, and the reminants of curry aroma burns your nostrils. I guess this is a preparation for working at sea. The people here are very friendly, but I think the city itself is pretty basic as far as a big city. I was expecting alot since I had heard it was so pretty and all, but those who think this is a pretty city or nice place to live most likely didn't grow up with me in San Diego. Bottom line, its okay to work here, but living is not for me. By the afternoon I arrived at the Maritime Medical appointment. The doctor was cool,but the clinic itself and the others around it were a little scary. Trust me, this makes Kaiser Zion or even Grossmont Hospital look like Taj Mahal. So anyhow, after this sight I definitely won't be voting democrat, and perhaps Mr.Obama should get his next medical treatment under socialized medicene before he platforms that as his solution.

On a funny side note, I asked where I could find a good Mexican Restaurant to eat and was told there is only 1 good place; Taco Time. Are you kidding me?!?! I spoke with a few of the natives here who have never had Mexican food!

Well, I am off. Tommorow I sign on the ship in Juneau. Sorry this was dull but this was my day. I would try to post a picture, but why do you want to see pictures of gray gloom? I will post next from the ship, most likely on Thursday or Friday!!

My ports of call for this week:

Wed 7/30 - Juneau, AK
Thu 7/31 - Skagway, AK
Fri 8/1/08- Glacier Bay
Sat 8/2/08 - College Fjord
Sun 8/3 - Anchorage, AK

Have a great day!!

Basic Training - Merchant Mariner

In preparation for heading out to sea, there was some training requirements that really opened my eyes to what I was getting into. The US Coast Card issues Merchant Marine certifications known as a Z-Card or Merchant Mariner Identification Card. This is a certification and identification that allows you to work at sea and use identification when visiting foreign/domestic ports. Holland America has foreign flagged ships (Holland), and therefore the Z-Card isn't required, but the Seaman's Book or Monsterbook is. Requirements are similiar, which brought me to the STCW (Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping) class, sorta like POST here in California to try and relate it to something. The school was based out of Fremont Maritime in Seattle, WA. The photo to the left is the company logo, with the title "India Tango", which out at sea means, "I'm on fire". For more info on the class and school itself you can check out http://www.sea-safety.com/

The STCW Training was a great class. Outside of learning about maritime first aid (which is actually a little different than mainland - no 9-1-1 at sea), ocean survival and a bunch of other simulated training; we had 16 hours of firefighting. Ok, here I must conceide (especially to my Grandpa Wheeler - retired SDFD)..... firefighters have it much tougher than cops. Yeah I know when I was out there in patrol I jumped on the firefighter coffee drinking, work-out pimpin, 5 mile jogging, glory gettin, GQ lookin firefighters! But trust me, You grab a 2" water line and enter a structure with a dual level engine fire burning at 1500 degrees, with smoke so thick you can't see your glove in front of your face, regulate your breathing through a 25 minute tank, control the pressure of the fire hose while keeping the fire under control (aka- not causing the fire to spread or excess steam cook your dome like a goose) in that uncomfortable and hot fire gear. I was only there for 2 days and fought 2 controlled fires - MY PROPS TO THE FIRE DEPARTMENT! And apologies for prior kidding around saying us cops had a tougher job - FD deserves the Lazy Boy recliners in front of the big screen with the sexiest woman around flocking to them... well I guess that's going a little too far, but oh well.

During the class, we were fortunate to have a guy named Thomas Bliss from the US Coast Guard (professional photographer) in the class with us. Our class was well documented with high quality photos thanks to Tom (as seen below). Enjoy the pictures and if you for some reason are in need of STCW Training or certifications, I highly recommend Fremont Maritime.

The following are pictures from the water and personal survival portion of the class (Photos By Thomas Bliss © 2008 all rights reserved):

These photos are of the firefighter training (Photos By Thomas Bliss © 2008 all rights reserved):

Going to Sea

Hello everyone! I have created this blog at the request of many of you wanting to keep in touch with me while at sea in my new position as Chief Security Officer with Holland America. I have been assigned the Maasdam (pictured left) in the months of Nov/Dec to sail out of Ft. Lauderdale throughout the Southern Caribbean and May/June out of Boston, MA throughout the New England/Canadian tour.

My first mission is actually going to be on the Volendam (pictured right) sailing Alaska, both inner and outer passge (rotating). I will be training for the first 2 weeks (from July 29-August 10), then I will be taking over as the Chief of the Onboard Security Department. I will be returning September 24th to San Diego, and continuing to work at the Cruise Ship Terminal as the shoreside Assistant Director of Security.

For those of you who weren't sure what I have been up to since moving back from Washington DC in 2007, I have been a Security Manager, now Assistant Director of Security, at the Cruise Ship Terminal at the San Diego Embarcadero (Port of San Diego - pictured left). I have actually had a great time and will be returning to the position when not at sea until we find out where Judi's job takes us. I work for Bryce Forrester (Director of Security), who is a retired Deputy Chief of El Paso Police Department in Texas. We work well together, and I know this at sea job has added stress to our smooth running system, which he reminds me is a compliment :) I tell you, after my years of being a street cop I thought I had seen it all until I started working at the Cruise Ship Terminal. I swear, I need to write a daily journal and sell it to Fox Network and call it "Life at the Cruise Ship Terminal - The not so loveboat". Many of you have heard some of the stories ranging from the guards working (like The Office meets Reno 911) to the cruise staff (mini United Nations) to the passengers (can feel like being a kid at Disneyland or being the only guy wearing a Red Sox jersey in Yankee Stadium) all in the same 12 hour workday. Let me document this - I own the rights to this sitcom!!

Anyhow, the blog is set up, and I will try my best to keep up on it from the high seas. I will have a laptop and digital camera, but those of you who know me, know I suck at taking pictures. Good news for everyone - Holland America does have a family discount plan, and cruising is a blast. The big challenge will be, Can I avoid the Lido food buffet? I venture to guess I will either lose or gain 20 pounds by the end of the year. Place your bets, ha ha.