The End Of The Cruise

She Said . . .

Well the trip we had planned for and looked forward to for months is coming to an end. Today is our last full day on the ship.  Tomorrow they kick us off.  This time not prematurely.

I try to title the sections so people can skip the stuff they don’t care about, which you might want to do with the following section which has nothing, really to do with the goings on during our vacation.

My Thoughts Having Nothing To Do With Vacation

I have thoroughly enjoyed the week on the ship.  I am not kicking and screaming to get off.  It is a rare event to have 7 days in succession where you can do absolutely whatever or nothing at all.  If you have ports of call, you are likely getting off the ship to see something you want to see.  If you are on vacation, it is unlikely you ever have 7 whole days to contemplate the world and life.  If you are at home for 7 days, there is always something to do - clean the house, finish some project on your To Do list, cook, etc.

I feel I really needed it.  When I started thinking about it, I really haven’t had time to process so much of what has happened in my life the last few years, with Kaylene being so sick for so long and then passing away.  Not to mention all the numerous other things that happened along the way which in themselves would have been just a blip but whose effect on my life was magnified by the sadness enveloping every fiber of my being.  Last year’s vacation should have been the opportunity to do that, but falling down breaking my face, getting kicked off a cruise ship, and making a trip to an Australian emergency room, did not lend itself to a time for reflection. (Excuse the pun - since we are now on the Celebrity Reflection.)

What a fantastic opportunity to look out at the vast ocean and just feel.  Mourn the loss of one person who has been there with me at every significant point in my life, always.  Feel the overwhelming love for my husband and the peacefulness that overcomes me as I think about his place in my world.  The thankfulness I have for all the amazing friends I have accumulated in my life.  Some I speak to on a regular basis, some I speak to from time to time, some I only see on Facebook, and some I must be content to merely hold in my heart.  You all know who you are.  If I start naming names now, I will leave someone out, think about them later, and then feel bad for not mentioning them.  Appreciation for being able to participate in the lives of my nieces and to keep their mother alive, if in some small way, in their lives.

I am content in my currently chosen profession.  I say currently because I look back and I see a few of them; professions, that is.  I can and do make a positive difference in people’s lives.  Some may wonder how a family lawyer who divorces people can feel that way.  Maybe some think I break up families.  The families are broken before I ever come on the scene.  The healing can begin based on what I do and how I do my job.

My life is full.  Full of love, family, amazing friends and colleagues, and truly a fulfilling life.  I can dwell in the sadness and all the bad things that have fallen in my path or I can look to those good things that have made my life something worth living. I choose to be thankful and happy that God has blessed me with so much!  The bad stuff, large and small, help me see all that is amazing in my life.

Well, enough philosophical mumbo jumbo.  Y’all are reading this to hear about  . . . Oh, Lord, I have no idea why you would read this.

Days 5 and 6

Days 5 and 6 looked much like the prior days.  Blaise finished both the sequels to The LIncoln Lawyer.  I am shocked he read two novels back to back without non-fiction in between.  He did not want to start reading any other novel because he will not pick it up again until our next vacation.  While I read novels all the time he does not.  Now he is reading some book about infinity  - the numerical concept, not the Celebrity Infinity (a ship), nor neverending time.

I finished my second David Baldacci novel, Saving Faith.  I found it to be one of his weakest stories.  Now I am on to Dennis LeHane’s Since We Fell.  I have loved Dennis LeHane since long before they made Mystic River a movie.  As a matter of fact, I haven’t even read that one.  The current one I’m reading may be the first I don’t like as it appears one of the characters I have come to enjoy in the first 38% of the book was killed in the first sentence.  It appears the rest of the story is telling us how the characters got there.  Or maybe it is just a dream - the killing part.  I hope.

We did some exercising in the the fitness center.  Some of my running friends would be real impressed with some guy on a treadmill who ran (not walked or even jogged) for 40 of the 45 minutes I was on the elliptical doing my 15-20 minute miles.  Hey, but I went.

We did see two boats in the last few days.  Just as I was beginning to wonder if we would even see a single boat until we hit Fort Lauderdale.

Before the cruise I thought it might be a little unsettling to not see boats or land for days on end.  It has not been.

We have gone back to the Captain’s Club happy hour every night because we have so enjoyed talking to the wonderful couple from Jackson Mississippi.  This is quite the accomplishment for my anti-social husband.  He must really like them for him to want to go back.  If you haven’t figured out by now, he likes to be anonymous in most situations.

General Thoughts On A Transatlantic Cruise

I think if you have the opportunity to do it you should.  If you are the ansy type who has to go go go all the time, then it might not be fore you.  You can do as much or as little as you want on the ship.  I choose lots of contemplation time and reading with a few events and activities sprinkled in. While I would do it again probably sooner than Blaise, we both have enjoyed it.  But I look at the long list of places we want to visit in this world and it may be a while before we do the transocean cruise again.

If you do decide to do a transatlantic cruise at some point, I recommend going from the east to the west (ex. - Europe to the U.S.) for a couple reasons.  First, take your long flight TO Europe so on the back end, you only have a couple hours to reach your final destination home in the U.S.  Take your hit on losing the hours of your time that way and gain it back on the cruise back to the United States.  Which leads me to the second reason to go from Europe to the U.S.:  25 hour days!  We had seven nights we fell back one hour, which give us 25 hours days.  You don’t feel like you are missing any time and you even feel like you are cheating the system getting extra time in your days.  Yes, I know I lost them on the flight TO Europe, but on the cruise back it sure  feels like you are getting some bonus time!

Coming Up

Tomorrow we get off the boat.  When Blaise booked our flight back from Fort Lauderdale to D/FW, we had a discussion whether or not we should take the first flight home at 8:30 AM or the last flight at 8:30 PM.  We knew we were going to fly Spirit since they have the best prices (even with paying to check bags) but they only have the 2 flights a day.  After 7 days relaxing on the boat, I did not want to run off the boat at 7 AM and worry through customs and picking up our luggage at the port if we were going to make it on the plane.  I just didn’t want to end our vacation that way.  I may regret my choice about 3 PM tomorrow, but we’ll see.  So we are leaving at 8:30 PM ish and won’t get in until nearly 11 PM.  We will have to Uber home because as we understand, Brandon is still in Florida working insurance claims.

There is a free shuttle bus from the airport to downtown Fort Lauderdale (which is really just canals and shopping) so we will check our bags at a security locker and take the shuttle downtown.  If we get bored there, we’ll just Uber to a movie theater and watch something even though I have no idea what movies are playing right now.  If someone has seen something good lately, let us know.

I would love it if Brandon is close enough to Fort Lauderdale to come spend a few hours with us.  But last we heard he was heading to the Orlando area.

While I am not ready for vacation to end (I never am), I am ready to talk to my friends and catch up on the latest goings on at the Courthouse.  I am sure Charles has thoroughly enjoyed my vacation since his wife and I aren’t texting all the time, particularly during the many gold rush shows our spouses love to watch.  Maybe since I’ve been on vacation that annoying female gold hunter has realized she’s no good at it and quit.  I can dream.  It’s sad that I know enough to hate her.

I am also looking forward to seeing my beautiful nieces.  I have most definitely missed them!  By the time we get back their school volleyball seasons will have finished and their club volleyball practices will be in full swing.

Dana’s Food Watch

Tuesday Dinner:  Our tasty little bite before our appetizers was a “devilish” egg with caviar sprinkled on top.  It was an exceptional deviled egg.  The egg spawned a conversation about my Thanksgiving menu since the nieces, Lyle, and let's not forget cute furry Lucy, will be at our house.  I absolutely LOVE having them over during any holiday!  These days all the cooking is on me so I have to give it a bit of thought and planning.  I would have a mutiny though, if I did not have deviled eggs.  Blaise says order it all from somewhere and be done with it, but I don’t quite have that in my yet.

Back to dinner - we had some sort of crusted shrimp for an appetizer with a tomato-based sauce.  Outstanding!  For our entrees, Blaise had the lamb shank and I had the cannelloni.  I am not a big fan of lamb, but Blaise let me have a bite of his and it didn’t taste lamby at all.  The cannelloni was amazing.  I don’t know what they do to make their pasta so delicious, but it is.  Every time.  Blaise again had the cheese plate for dessert and I cannot remember whatsoever what I had.

Wednesday Dinner:  

Last night was what I now call “fancy” night - our last one for the cruise so they always have super special food choices.  Our little bite (For Randee - I know the name, I just can’t spell it and I am afraid the spell checker won’t properly correct it when I go online to upload this) was a cold shrimp with wonton noodle things.  It was dry but tasty.  I think it should have had some sort of sauce.  Blaise had the wedge salad with blue cheese dressing for his starter and I had something tasty (because I ate the whole damn thing) yet unremembered. For his entree, Blaise had herb encrusted lamb chops and I had the butter poached lobster.  Blaise had the cheese plate for dessert and I had a chocolate bar with peanut gelato.  The chocolate bar was a chocolate mousse with a dark chocolate sauce covering the whole of it.

Injury Watch

No injuries but I did lose my other pinky nail.  It has been nearly 3 weeks since I got my nails done and they look awful. Yes, a first-world problem.

He Said . . .

And last day of the 2017 vacation cruise.  So I must say that I truly enjoyed the down time but I’m ready to get home, I loved the ports of call and any time you can get your own personal tour of the Vatican and the Sistine Chapel you know it’s going to be very special.  It’s utterly amazing to me that we can be across the world in less than 14 hours and enjoying what our art, history, social and civic teachers said would define you when you were a kid; I think back to my childhood, I couldn’t even imagine seeing these priceless treasures, not to mention the beauty that these places hold that local takes for granted.  I would have never guessed it was going to be possible and I consider ourselves to be so very fortunate, health, happiness and getting to experience places like these, it’s incredible…

Just as an aside, I should give you a glimpse into what I hope none of you were unfortunate enough to experience during your school years.  We used to refer to our high school as the Stalag because it had 8 foot fences and constantan wire running above it, I used to joke about whether they were trying to educate us or just keep us contained until the judicial system could take over.  The last two days of each of my high school years were marred by racially motivated “brawls” that ended violently and with too many police cars to count.  I was one of the smart ones who realized early that for some reason our gym was a “safe zone” and everyone that wasn’t involved climbed to the top of the rafters and watched the lunacy of our childhood play out.  Fortunately by my sophomore year I was able to convince my mom that there was not going to be any learning going on and my life could be in question, she concurred, I stayed home!!

With that as a backdrop it makes me feel so fortunate that I am able to enjoy the true meaning of the things that are out there for us to experience and not just Google them up, some things just can’t be seen on Google, just as Robin Williams said to Matt Damon in Good Will Hunting, I bet you can’t tell me what it smells like in the Sistine Chapel?  Or how you felt when you looked up at that ceiling the first time and realized that it was his very FIRST painting, unbelievable!!  That said I feel so very fortunate to be able to see these things for ourselves with someone I truly love being with, Brandon notwithstanding, I REALLY miss talking to him and can’t wait to get within cell coverage to call him to find out what’s going on in Florida with the cat. duty.

So as we close this vacation out, I hear there is going to be a final wrap up Saturday I am looking forward to getting home and starting the planning for 2018, I am strongly encouraged about China as I got overruled this year, 2019 is shaping up to be the Baltics.  In any case I’m already looking forward to the crazy things that will invariably come up to/from and on the boats.  FYI, we priced the Galapagos and Celebrity wanted 30K for that and Machu Picchu, clearly they don’t know who they’re dealing with here.  

I finished the second book in the Lincoln Lawyer series (the Brass Verdict), it was better than the others, including the one they made into a movie and hopefully they’ll make this one into a movie as well.  I’m sure Ami will want to see it if they recast Matthew McConaughey as the lead again… :)

Next on the list is called Beyond Infinity, a book about trying to reduce infinity to something more palpable than my very first Calc Prof called it “a gosh awful big number”, and I can hear it coming out of his mouth with a Texas draw/twang like it was just yesterday, God I loved the way he taught, he made math so much fun and for me was so engaging that if you didn’t finish your homework you felt like you let him down personally; what a teacher!!  I’m a few chapters in and so far we have landed on anything too lofty like quantum mechanics or string theory, we’re still wrapping our heads around how to define it so it should be a fun read.  She started by creating an imaginary hotel with infinite rooms that you could accommodate all the guests who came in as long as people didn’t mind moving from room to room and that was fine, then she added a second floor, more interesting conceptually when you want to move people from the second floor to the first due to a fire, and then finally infinite floors being moved to the 1st floor, then it just became more challenging, good fun after you noodle it a bit.

Looking forward to getting into Fort Lauderdale tomorrow to see how it looks after some cleanup time, we’ll go downtown after we drop off the luggage at the airport.  Hopefully we be able to find the restaurant we ate at last time, 1926 or something like, fabulous mexican food, I can’t wait!!!  And then just the big front seat, 1A and 1C at 8:45P to get home.  

I don’t think I’ll do another transatlantic again but you never know, I want to see the ports more than I want 7 straight days of solitude, but who knows maybe after retirement I’ll feel differently.  Until then be healthy, be happy and hug your significant other and let them know how you appreciate them every day, or whatever their equivalent love language act would be, see you soon…

Sea Days 3 and 4

He Said . . .

The past couple of days have led to a few changes in routine for us.  Yesterday evening we went up to the Sky Lounge to redeem our drink coupons for the first time and met a few folks that were quite nice, Andy and Suzy, recently retired and Gary and Mikey, long retired.  They were pleasant enough but as always I felt that there were two new issues, now I had to commit their faces to memory on the off chance that ran into then around the ship and my level of anonymity was being be jeopardized since I felt compelled to provide them with my real name.  I had heard that people had played up some really wild profiles and let them play out real world; everything from British Royalty to Lucifer had been bantered about during a beer drinking ruckus that I happened to be in attendance of some years back and it had planted a seed.  So far it hadn’t germinated but going forward I thought it might, last night I thought I could run with it but I hadn’t discussed it with Ami and figured she wouldn’t be receptive.  Anyway we are going to meet them again this evening during happy hour, seems harmless enough.  

Otherwise the day was filled with finishing the 3rd Lincoln Lawyer and starting the second one, not sure how I got them out of order but they aren’t prequel so se la vie.  They are a quick read, a couple of days at best and they keep me from thinking about the 2,000 emails I will have waiting for me when I return to the office, I’m sure I’ll have to spend the weekend catching up. Hopefully we will have pushed out a Maintenance Pack (MP) as we call them to fix a bug that has been in the system since we launched IMS some 7 years ago, not sure how that happened but nonetheless it needs to get fixed and that should wrap up my capital dollars for the year, whooo hooooo, I can check that off my PA&D (Performance Agreement and Development)!!!  Back to the moment at hand…

Yesterday was my first day to hit the gym, 25 five minutes walking and 5 minutes running on that damn treadmill, the inventor was a true masochist I swear.  It felt good and I decided to add it to the regimen these last few days at sea, along with napping and reading, what a life, I could get used to this too!!  

Today is Halloween, and if you can believe it, some people decorated their doors in honor of the day, I can only imagine what gets broken out for dinner.  I haven’t ever seen a 70 year old in a hooker outfit, it’s gonna be an eye gouging moment I’m sure, a little prayer may be in order.  Not by name, just thought, if the big guy gets ahold of the name I might be in trouble there too.

First up was an egg drop contraption from the 7th to the 3rd floor with three raw eggs as riders, if they make it you score points and the team closest to the circle they had laid out wins, the crowd was quite large and if I didn’t know any better I would have thought that some of these people tracked down hardware to make their contraptions, quite fun and imaginative.  BTW, there weren’t many winners but all good fun!!

The weather is gorgeous, 78 degrees on the balcony on the 12th floor on the balcony overlooking a beautiful partly cloudy 1-2 meter swell that feels like glass on a boat this big.  If someone would have asked what at Atlantic crossing looked like I would have have given them the North Atlantic version with 20-30 foot seas and riding in the trough across.  That’s not this, it’s the way it was intended on a cruise ship and I’m so glad we took the long flight to get there, now we have a two hour, “big front seat” on Spirit to get home after sightseeing on Friday.  

Hopefully Brandon is still down there cleaning up after the hurricanes and living large, I will call him once we get in to catch up and find out where everything vetted out after we left.  I hope he’s still down there, I miss talking to him everyday and catching up.

Otherwise all is grand, life as a sailor is great, as a cruiser at least, but I’ll be ready to get back to our sense of normalcy when we get in, hope Fort Lauderdale is back to normal as well, more later…

She Said . . .

Happy Halloween!

Go Astros!

With those out of the way, as you would hope while you are in the middle of the Atlantic with the closest land being over 800 nautical miles, the last two days have been rather uneventful.

Activities

We while away the days reading and watching the ocean.  We have both spent some time in the fitness center.

I went to a presentation Sunday on the Galapagos Islands and what Celebrity Cruises has to offer.  Yesterday, we went to see the Future Cruise folks only to find out for the 2 of us, the price is over $30,000.  Now it was all-inclusive and also included machu picchu and a few other locations.  But having never priced a trip like this, we have no idea if it is a good deal or not.  It seems awfully high to both of us so we did not book it.  We also looked at Baltic cruises but we want one that includes St. Petersburg and the Norwegian Fjords and couldn’t find one that fit that requirement by Celebrity so we will look elsewhere.  Next year we want to go to China so we also looked at their options there and did not see anything that had everything we wanted to do in China.  We know Viking has it so that may be the choice.

Sunday I went to a wine tasting - one red and one white from 6 different countries.  Actually it was 8 different countries because they lumped Australia and New Zealand together and Argentina and Chili together.  My favorite white was the Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand and the red (can’t remember the name) from Spain.  Other countries/regions represented were France, Italy, and California.  Unfortunately, the California wines were my least favorites.

I met a lovely man, Alister, currently living in Florida.  He is actually Scottish.  Left Scotland when he was 18 and went to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) as part of the military police.  He is 71 and now lives in Florida with his wife of 20 years.  His 40-year-old daughter just finished her last round of chemo in her battle against breast cancer.  She is an attorney in Florida.  His son works for a charity in D.C.  I saw pictures of both his children and his grandchildren.  It was funny, I guess one of the ladies (Celebrity employee) working the event, picking up glasses and dirty dishes, knew him from the dining room or something because she felt the need to come by and ask where his wife was and if she needed let his wife know he was talking to me.  It was very sweet - she was quite protective of his wife.  I think we were both just happy to find someone to talk to since our spouses did not attend.  I always like to talk to different people.

Last night we went to the Captain’s Club Elite happy hour where we met a lovely couple from Jackson Mississippi and another couple from Greensboro, South Carolina (Gary, the husband went Georgia).  We enjoyed talking to them.

Other than that, I’ve been reading my next David Baldacci novel, Saving Faith.  So far I am enjoying it.

The Boat

As promised, I’ll tell you a bit about our boat and accommodations.  We are on the Celebrity Reflection.  When we cruise, we more often than not, cruise Celebrity.  The crowd is usually older than us, at least when we vacation since kids are often in school when we go.  I think in general the folks on Celebrity are slightly older than us.

We have cruised enough on Celebrity, we have achieved Elite status in their frequent cruiser program, Captain’s Club.  This entitles us to certain perks.  As I said in an earlier post, we each get 90 minutes of free internet.  We also get free drinks at their nightly happy hour for Elite members and better, 1 free bag of laundry, discounts on bottles of wine, a free scoop of gelato, some match plays on blackjack or roulette, and some other things here and there.

While we don’t normally do so, we sprung for a suite this time since we were going to be on the boat so much.  This means the room and balcony are a bit bigger, we have a jetted tub in the bathroom, a personal butler in addition to our cabin steward, access to Michael’s Club (a private lounge only for suite people), and dinner in a special restaurant ( The Luminae).  We don’t really use the butler much.  I’ve asked him to make reservations for us and book our excursion, but not much else.  With Blaise it has become a joke, because every day, Rene, the butler, tries to figure out how he can help Blaise.  One day he tried to bring Blaise canapes. Another some bottled water.  And yet another, he asked if he could bring Blaise some wine.

I’ve really enjoyed the extra space and roomier balcony.  I have watched the sunrise numerous times from the balcony and spend time reading there.  We both enjoy the shower and tub.  The shower is exceptional and the jetted tub isn’t so bad either.

The boat is beautiful and very well maintained.  I don’t know what year it went into service but it may be the youngest in their fleet.  There are about 3,000 folks on the ship but it doesn’t really feel like it.

Dana’s Food Watch

Sunday’s Dinner:  I can’t remember what we had for appetisers but we both had the bacon wrapped trout for our entree’.  It was delicious.  I thought it had a bit more  spinach stuffed in it than I would have liked, but still tasty.

Monday’s Dinner:  Our little bite before the appetizer was some sort of caramelized apple slice with some creamy cheese that seemed like some version of brie.  For our starters, Blaise had the kale Caesar salad and I had the butternut squash ravioli (just 2 raviolis).  For our entrees, we both had the venison loin on a bed of pickled red cabbage with mashed potatoes, carrots, and one (just one) brussel sprout.  I’m not a big red cabbage fan so I only ate a couple bites of that.  For dessert, Blaise had his cheese plate and I had custard (they called it a creme’ brulee but it wasn’t a traditional creme’ brulee - more like a scoop of custard) on a biscuit/cookie thing with a scoop of some sort of ice cream.  No, I am not a food writer, so you get the food as best as I can describe it.

Injury Watch

Still injury free!!!

First 2 of 7 Sea Days

She Said . . .

This is the beginning of our third day at sea.  With two of the seven behind us, I am finding it quite relaxing so far - the Atlantic Ocean as far as the eye can see.  We have seen no land and no other ships since late Thursday night.

It is a bit ironic, as someone who does not know how to swim, looking out at the ocean and listening to the water is so very soothing.  I suppose it would not be as soothing if we had some sort of catastrophe in which I found myself in the water.

Time Management

No such thing here on the ocean.

We do whatever the hell we want.  I’ve sat on our balcony the last two mornings watching the sunrise.  We eat some breakfast then find a spot to sit and read.  The past couple days it has been on 4 in Cellar Masters.  We tried outside in the morning but with the wind in the morning, it is a bit chilly.  Just a small chill but enough for Blaise to say no. At some point, we may wander around, Blaise will do his thing, I will do mine.  We spend a chunk of time sitting on our balcony.  I have made my way to the fitness center too.  

Two days ago we watched a presentation on Celebrity’s 2018 and 2019 European cruises.  While we are looking at China for next year, in 2019, we are thinking of a Baltic cruise which includes the Norwegian Fjords and St. Petersburg Russia.  Is anyone with is? Towards the end of the presentation, an older guy went to leave and fell down the three stairs leading to the exit.  The falling down the stairs takes on a whole new meaning for me after last year.  People were staring at him entirely too long and I finally said to the people around me “Quit staring at him.”  My thought is let the people around him tend to him and let’s not embarrass him further by staring and making a spectacle of it.  Not that I’ve been a spectacle in a similar manner or anything.

Today, I will attend an Around The World Wine Tasting.  Blaise will sit this one out.

Books

It occurred to me, I didn’t tell you what The Rosie Project was about.  It is about a Ph.D geneticist, who teaches at a university in Melbourne Australia.  He has Aspergers but, while he realizes he is different than everyone else, he doesn’t seem to get he has Aspergers.  Anyway, he is 39 years old and sets about finding a wife.  “The Wife Project” includes women completing an extensive quiz which he uses to filter out unsuitable mates.  In the course of this, he meets a woman Rosie, who according to his criteria, is completely wrong for him in every way, but whose company he enjoys immensely.  It really is a charming book.

From there I went to The Winner by David Baldacci which I finished reading yesterday.  It is about a 20-year-old single mother who is quite poor living in an extremely poor county in Georgia.  I think my token Georgia friend, Dana, is now taking notice.  Anyway, a stranger approaches her and says he can guarantee she wins the lottery.  After she decided not to take up the offer, a series of unfortunate events occur leaving her feeling as though she has no choice but to take up the offer by the stranger.  Loved it!  But I love just about anything from David Baldacci.

Now, I have to figure out what to read next.

Blaise is more of the non-fiction reader.  He often brings technical manuals with him on vacation.  I always download a few novels for him in hopes he will relax with a good story.  He finished reading his The Number book early on and then started reading a book on “love languages.”  I appreciate that he is always working to make sure our marriage is strong.  The turn of events here is that he made ME take a test so we could determine what my “love language” is.  A love language is really just what I feel is important for my partner to do to show me his love..  I have a combo of “Words of Appreciation” and “Acts of Service.” Of course I had to make him take the quiz too.  HIs were 3 “Acts of Service,” “Physical Touch,” and “Quality Time.”  I guess I have my work cut out trying to keep him a happy husband.  There is a fifth love language “Gifts” which neither of us scored high in.

But now he is reading the sequel to LIncoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly.  I have succeeded in getting him to read a novel.  Perhaps all the free time had something to do with it.

Events on Boat

Apparently we had an event yesterday on the boat that caused the Captain to get on the loudspeaker and update the entire ship.  There was a slight flood on deck 3; a broken pipe as it turned out.  Unfortunately some guests on the ship thought we were sinking.  I suppose I can see how you would get there.  The Captain is quite the comedian.  He told us the first thing you do when there is water free flowing on a ship is to test the origin of the water.  If the water is salty, then you could be going down.  If it is potable water, then you are not sinking - you just have to find the cause of the water.

The other day, I went to use one of the public restrooms.  An older lady was standing at the beginning of the line of stalls and told me they were all in use.  I dutifully stood there behind the woman waiting my turn.  A worker who was cleaning the sinks kindly pointed out there were most certainly stalls available and opens a couple doors.  Turns out ALL the stalls were open.  I’m not sure what planet that woman was on; all the doors freely opened.  That will teach me to trust someone in that situation again.  I’ll check for myself from now on.

Also the other day, I got into the elevator and we started moving.  The elevator had glass on 3 sides and you could see the elevators across  from us - always have been able to see it - it hasn’t changed during the cruise. Eight days into the cruise a woman commented to her friend “Wow! It’s really cool you can watch the other elevators go up and down!”  As if she had not seen it before.  Where has she been all this time?  Not in an elevator I guess.  Now we take the stairs as much as we can, but especially when I am wearing heels, we use the elevators.

Dana’s Food Watch

Friday’s Dinner:  We ate dinner at one of the specialty restaurants, The Tuscan Grille.  I made this reservation because October 27 (Friday) marked the day Blaise is eligible for retirement.  Earlier this year, he reached that point if he were to cash in all of his vacation and personal days, but Friday was the day he could do so without cashing in any time.  To reach eligibility, his time in service at Verizon and his age must equal 75.  I thought this was cause for a bit of celebration, so I made the reservation.  Early Friday, Blaise started thinking and said, “hey, I think my day of retirement eligibility was actually September 27.”  He said he thought he remembered the guy wanting to onboard him before the start of the 4th quarter so he would be eligible for the 4th quarter bonus.  A bit anti-climatic, but still a lovely dinner.

Blaise and I both had the crab cake appetizer which was even better than the one I had a few days earlier.  Blaise had the ceasar salad and I had the arugula and goat cheese salad with balsamic vinaigrette.  For our entrees Blaise had the filet mignon and I had the lasagna, in my continued search for the best lasagna.  While this lasagna was great, it was not even near the lasagna at Marco G’s in Rome.  Blaise had no dessert but I felt I needed to order some even though I was full given we paid $45 each for the meal.  I had spumoni donuts, which, sadly were a bit chewy.

Dinner Saturday:  Our little bite before the appetizer was a duck liver mousse which neither of us liked at all.  Blaise’s comment is “it was dog shit.”  It really was.  Blaise has seared prawns and arugula.  Blaise says they were “tasty.”  I had the heirloom tomato salad with a pistachio dressing which was also very tasty.  For the entree’ Blaise had wild mushroom pot pie which although dry, he seemed to enjoy.  I had the lobster minus the bed of fava beans they wanted to put it on.  For dessert I had the Bailey’s Irish ice cream sundae.  Yummy!

The only other food to note were the scones Blaise turned me onto yesterday.  At 3:30 every day the Oceanview Cafe’ (the buffet restaurant on 14) has afternoon tea items.  He had had one of these delicious scones a few days earlier and couldn’t get it off his mind, so I had to try it out.  It was a cinnamon raisin scone with raspberry jam and clotted cream.  The scone was warm and so delicious, I can’t stop thinking about it either.

Injury Watch

No injuries.  Almost 2 weeks into this vacation and 9 nights into the cruise and we are all good!

He Said . . .

The problem with writing about sea days is they’re supposed be about like Saturday mornings at home, sleep in a bit, grab breakfast, at Dove Creek if possible, and run the week’s errands.  Well that’s about the extent of it most of the time, but yesterday we had some excitement.  We hear an ill timed announcement from the Captain about 11 or 12 about if you see a water leak and it’s fresh water it’s all good, if it’s salt water it’s bad.  Then he went on to say that this was fresh water from a burst pipe and that all was just fine, I saw the containment area a few hours later, it must have been pretty bad, they even had to move the artwork that was on display to avoid it getting soaked.  BTW, there was a third option concerning the water that I considered when he enumerated the first two but thought if it’s option three they better not taste it…

Otherwise there has been lots of reading, I think Ami mentioned what our love languages turned on to be and that was helpful, if you haven’t read it give it a shot, it’s a quick read and could be helpful to know what your spouse/significant other is and how/why they react the way they do to your displays of love.  

I have moved on to the second or third Lincoln Lawyer and am about 55% complete with it, it’s heating up nicely at this point.  I will probably be done with it tomorrow is my hope.

I am definitely jonesing to get back online so I can catch up on the record breaking run-up in the market, and the musing of the Trump Dossier and tax cuts.  I would like to see what we might see as I hear good things on the small business front may help Ami somewhat.  

Lastly, I’m quite surprised at how calm the seas are at 20 knots, it’s typically 3-6 foot swells with most of it trending toward 3 feet, it’s beautiful for 25 hours a day, yes about every other day we cross another time zone and have to move the clocks back another hour.  It’s been great for sleeping for the creaking that once plagued Ami’s sleep has now crept into my psyche, I think she did that on purpose if I know her.  I’m not sure you guys play little mind games on each other, but we do, every morning I get up and think of a new song to sing while in the bathroom/shower, then I go to town, I even play the old videos on youtube on occasion, why, to plant the song seed to see if Ami will come home and be mad about me planting “that” song seed.  I’ve had her stuck on a song for a few days to a week or two; it’s great fun!!!  First world problems as Brandon would say!!!  That’s it, resting, relaxing, sleeping and watching the rolling waves.  

I will say the best thing about vacations this long are that you lose track of the day of the week; geez I so look forward to that.

Oh and one final note, we ran into a retired Canadian couple that I asked what do you do now that you’re retired, his comment, I’m so busy I can’t figure out when I actually had time to work.  Not sure I’m there yet but we are making plans for China in 2018, Baltic back to back for 2019 and Machu Picchu for 2020, I need to be done by then…

He Said . . .

We are expecting the sea days to be fairly low key so we are planning to combine sea days to not spend cycles discussing how the chest rises and falls while breathing and waiting for the next meal to show up.  That said let me catch you up on our sea day and our stop in Tenerife Canary Islands.

Our sea day was spent reading a counselor’s book on marriage, nothing wrong but I am always on the lookout for ensuring that we are working on it so as to not let it go “unmanaged”; I will provide a few morsels from the Cliff Notes version.

First my own morsel, I was taught many years ago that marriage was really very easy by a couple I had heard on a cruise ship years ago while watching a self made version of The Newlywed Game, it was both profound and trivial I thought, here it is… Make your spouse your best friend, that’s it!!  At the time I brushed it off but over the years have come to learn that it is so very true; back to the book, the author says that your spouse/significant other wants to be loved in one of five ways, they are, Words of Affirmation, Quality Time, Gifts of Love, Acts of Love and Physical touch.  Now it’s his belief that it’s pretty easy to figure out which one of these is your spouse’s primary motivator, the one they complain about the most with regard to you not doing something is their key love driver.  Once you figure out which one is their primary love driver, fill that and you will never have a failed marriage.  Remember it’s not YOUR primary love driver, that’s for them to figure out for you, unless you tell them, this is their primary love driver and if you manage to fill that need their “love tank” will get filled, I’ve heard this referred to as “love bank” which I like much better but either way, focus on their love need and you will be rewarded with a much improved relationship.   That was day one of my readings, let me know if it works for you…

In port at Tenerife, we opted to take an excursion to see the volcanic crater that dominates the landscape of this small island chain; what we got was a drive that left me once again addressing my fear of heights and 1000 ft plus sheer cliffs and having to trust my life to a stranger that most probably had no training beyond passing a class C driving test, I was worried.  It was touted as a panoramic view of the crater that was marked as strenuous and mentions of hiking and getting in touch with the landscape of the crater.  It was extremely moon-esque in its look, all obsidian rock and totally void of vegetation; I recalled somewhere that one of the Planet of the Apes movies was done here, and that was confirmed.  Additionally, Raquel Welch did her clothing optional, worst ever, movie here as well, sometime back in 2000 I recall, and another 5-10 westerns back when westerns were still made, if you remember that.

Back on task, this was what we really received, we drove for an hour had to stop to let all the walnut sized bladders relieve themselves, back on the bus for 30 more minutes to arrive at the crater, then for the highlight, off the bus for “20” minutes to walk around and take pictures, I was really unhappy with the time given, I thought we would be there for a couple hours so we could fan out and really get personal with the surroundings, not to be and after checking out the tram, which I would have loved to take to the mountain summit, we were back on the bus and heading back.  It may have been one of the worst excursions we’ve ever taken and speaks to why we continue to venture out further on our own as we get more comfortable with not being left behind by the cruise ship.

I suspect the next cruise we’ll probably be totally on our own!!  Unfortunately we arrived back at the ship with about 2 hours left and were told that it takes 45 minutes to get to town so we were basically done with the Canary Islands without seeing a huge portion of it.  Now it has never been on my short list but I would like to get more up close and personal with another trip if it happens to work out.

One item of note that was new for me, the Canary Islands are only 240 km, 120 miles from Africa; I thought they were due west of Spain, not at all, much more southwest and much closer to Africa than Spain, lesson learned.  

Today’s only comic relief during a lull when the woman running the excursion if there were any questions and someone in back, at just the right time, yells out, isn’t this the airport where they had that terrible crash?  She says I won’t speak about that in public and if you want to discuss it see me afterward, I thought I hadn’t seen that on Air Disasters so it couldn’t have been to big a crash.  Later, on the way back she asked again if you there were any questions, I whispered to Ami, “yea, can we talk about that crash?”, I didn’t say it but it did bring a smile to my face.  

The rest of the day was just enjoying the last views of land before leaving as well as relaxing around the room before the world’s best shower that I am totally addicted to, 45 minutes per night in there, it’s unbelievable!!

Other than that my stupid quip of the day happened at about 10:45, it was almost lights out and Ami says there is some sort of squeak next to the bed that’s driving me crazy, can you take a look?  I said, I don’t have a tool box, I’m not sure what I can do but I’ll take a look.  I tore through the area assuming something was rubbing on something else but didn’t find anything, I said I can’t find anything.  She said, if I lay in this really awkward, uncomfortable position it doesn’t make the noise, see?  I said, good night, she called me an expletive and we turned out the lights.  BTW, in the morning it was still squeaking but by then we had learned to live with it, it was white noise by then…  

Gambling Update

We lost $35 bucks playing quick hits but it was all Ami’s idea so we are at

Blaise - up $1.67

Ami - Down $55.00 [Editor’s Note - It was a joint loss - we did it together]

Prune Watch

Not required!!!!

She Said . . .

Well, it is Friday, October 27 and our first day of 7 at sea across the Atlantic.  At the end of this, we will either want to get off this thing pronto or be so relaxed, it won’t matter.

Since we last wrote, we had another day at sea and visited the Canary Islands.

Day at Sea

Wednesday we spent another day at sea traveling out of the Mediterranean and into the Atlantic to get to the Canary Islands which is 240 kilometers (about 148 miles) from the continent of Africa.

It was a relaxing day filled with lounging around and reading in the Solarium pool area and our balcony.

I finished my book The Rosie Project.  If I had more internet time, I would look up who recommended it and thank him/her.  It was a delightful book but, dammit, there is a sequel.  Which I must now read.  It will have to wait until I have unlimited internet and can download it.

We specifically have chosen to not buy an unlimited internet package because one of the points of going on a cruise is to turn off the communication devices.  The only reason we can blog is because of our status on Celebrity Cruises - we each get 90 free minutes of internet.  If we didn’t have that - no blog for you!

We saw some news about the uprising in Catalonia, where Barcelona is.  Looks like their regional government is going to try to take over for Spain.  I am not sure that is going to go over too well with the Spain’s national government.  Catalonia is significant portion of Spain’s economy.  There were more demonstrations in Barcelona after we left.  Don’t think I would be paying much attention to this if I had not just been there but it will be interesting to see how this plays out. I will be following it.

Tenerife, Canary Islands

We booked an excursion this time.  What we got was not what we expected.  Where we went was, but what we did, was not.  The excursion was marked “strenuous” and said we would walk and explore the crater next to the dormant volcano, Teide (pronounced “tA-dA” with the A’s pronounced as they are in Ami).  This was more of a let’s-ride-around-in-a-bus-and-observe-through-the-windows kind of excursion.  Not our favorite.  

We got out once to take pictures, once to potty, drink coffee, and shop, and once at the crater for only 15 minutes.  15 minutes is all we had to “explore!”  That’s it.  We thought we would have time to hike around the crater for a while.  Nope.  Very disappointing since the terrain was unlike anything we had ever seen before. Just amazing!  The area is a national park.  I would love to return and hike there.

We were quite late coming back to the boat so we didn’t get to wander around the town.  That was a bummer.  The last thing we wanted was to go roaming around and miss the boat being that our next stop was over 3,000 nautical miles away in Florida.

I have to mention to drive.  The road was your typical winding road up a mountain with a grand fall on one side of the road.  I could tell Blaise, with his fear of heights was extremely uncomfortable at times sitting next to the window.  I sat by the window on the way back and even though I really don’t have a fear of heights, I have to admit it quite harrowing at times.

Sangria Tour of Spain

Sadly, the sangria tour of Spain ended in Malaga.  We had zero time to go back into town after being dropped off at the ship from our excursion.  So in my limited exploration of Spanish sangria, I found the best to be in Barcelona, followed by Malaga, and then Cartagena.  All quite yummy. Blaise’s order is Cartagena, Barcelona, then Malaga.  I will miss the sangria.  It is not the same in the U.S.

Dana’s Food Watch

Wednesday’s Dinner:  While I cannot remember what we had for breakfast or lunch that day, the waiter offered to do a surf and turf for me for dinner.  I said that is fine so long as it isn’t a full portion of both.  I received a full portion of the sirloin steak and of the fettuccine with calamari and shrimp.  Blaise and I both ate some of both but not all of either were completely consumed.  Blaise had the barramundi on a bed of bean puree.  If you have never had barramundi, you must have it at least once in your life.  That was Frank and Barbara Litt’s recommendation when we went to Australia last year since it is only found in the waters off of Australia.  We had it in Cairns, Australia the night before we got back on the boat after my broken nose debacle.  I would have been “in” this time had it not been for the bean puree. I cannot recall what we had for our appetizer.  For dessert, Blaise had the cheese plate and I had some sort of chocolate dessert with vanilla ice cream.  Mine was lovely.  Blaise’s cheese plates feature one special cheese with corresponding complementing accoutrements

Since we don’t do anything special for breakfast or lunch, I will only talk about dinner from now on unless there is something of note otherwise.

Last night for dinner, we had a scallop ceviche for the chef’s mers bouche.  Blaise and I both had pate’ for the appetizer.  It was tasty but the portion was so large, I could not finish it.  Blaise had roasted chicken with creamy polenta which looked delicious.  Blaise said he really enjoyed it.  He doesn’t normally like polenta (I think that’s crazy!) but said he loved that one.  I had braised short rib ravioli in hopes they would redeem themselves from my disappointing short rib two nights earlier.  They did.  I love this chef’s pasta!  I don’t know what he does to it, but it is some tasty stuff.  For dessert, I had the chocolate souffle’ with some sort of ice cream.  I’m not a huge souffle’ fan, but this was the best souffle’ I have ever had. It was amazing!  Worth every calorie!  I could not define the flavor of ice cream but it was not vanilla.  It took me a few bites to determine the perfect souffle’ to ice cream ratios but my, oh, my!

Injury Watch

No injuries.  How can you injure yourself if you are on a bus all day?  The acrylic nail on my left pinky popped off though.  I kept it in case the salon on the boat can somehow glue it on.