Life's Better at Sea...

9/18/11 – AT SEA

Today was new puzzle day.  Although it was sunny for the most part, Tommy was anxious to start our next puzzle, so I picked out a 2,000-piece puzzle of a castle in Germany.  I actually got into this puzzle, and the two of us spent our entire morning and a bit of the afternoon working away at fitting the many pieces together.  Who would have thought the two of us would be spending our days in the library working on puzzles…I think we are being influenced by the 65-average age on the ship!  Of course when I mention the word puzzle, I must also reference Kevin who is always to be found by Tommy’s side when he is working on his puzzles… 

I cannot fail to mention that during basketball round two, I got the ball stuck in the same way Tommy did the first time.  Through process of elimination, and by that I mean eliminating everyone above the age of 60 leaving just the two of us, I think they will have no trouble figuring out who is continuously getting the basketball stuck behind the hoop…I hope they do not ban us from the courts!  We enjoyed another great day at sea and delicious dinner for our second formal night. 

9/19/11 – AT SEA

The sunny, partly cloudy day at sea consisted mostly of finishing the key parts of our castle puzzle.  I was able to drag Tommy outside for a few hours of sun and pool time before being pulled back down to the library to continue working on our puzzle.  Tommy is a puzzle drill sergeant; I report for duty every morning and must finish a certain amount of hours putting the pieces together before I am released to go outside!

One of the many towel animals we come back to every night before bed... this one scared the BLEEP out of me.

9/20/11 – AT SEA

Today began with the continuation of working on our new puzzle.  Luckily this was short lived as today is Neptune Day, the celebration for crossing the equator.  Although we did not cross the equator until 7pm, a traditional ceremony/ritual was held at 10:30am very similar to the one held on Semester at Sea.  The difference was instead of having all of the passengers pay homage to the “king” (captain), kiss the fish and then proceed to be dumped with goop (pretend fish guts) all over our bodies, the crew acted out this process as we all watched on.  I much preferred participating in it on Semester at Sea, but it was fun to relive the tradition of asking King Neptune for his permission to cross the equator.  I kept puzzle solving down to an hour today by distracting Tommy with swimming and many games of UNO, Elmo and Rummy 500.  It was a fun, great day!

9/21/11 – AT SEA

Another hot, sunny day at sea.  Today is the Champagne Brunch for Mariner Society Members.  Because I have sailed on Holland America once before, on my very first cruise ever back in 2000, I am considered a Mariner Society Member.  Unfortunately Tommy is not a member, and therefore is not invited along to the brunch with me.  I am actually not going because after a great workout, I do not feel much like drinking champagne at 11am in the morning with a bunch of old geezers, especially because we have to dress up!  I think I’ll opt for laying out by the pool instead! 

We have become good friends with the Sydney couple we met in the Jacuzzi on the second day of the cruise, Jeffery and Leletta.  The two have given us an array of great suggestions of things we must do in Sydney and all over Australia.  I would not be surprised if they take us around for a day once in Sydney or even help us find an apartment! 

9/22/11 – AT SEA

We are definitely excited to be arriving to a new port tomorrow.  Although we love being at sea, we are ready to see a new place that we both have never been to before.  Today was HOT HOT HOT with the sun strong and high and the lack of a breeze off the water.  A stifling day on deck that resulted in the majority of our day spent in the pool!  The pool was reminiscent of a watering hole because no one could stand to bake in the sun for too long before needing a refreshing dip. 

We did something new today.  A cute older man from Sydney was helping us with our puzzle and looked at the time realizing it was happy hour.  Happy hour?  What the heck have we been missing!  Well he filled us in that during a certain time every late afternoon the Crows Nest has a happy hour with $1 beers.  Well we can afford $1 beers, so we decided to go check it out.  Of course you must know that Kevin was also “helping” with the puzzle, so he asked to tag along to the happy hour with us.  I am glad he did because he was sweet enough to buy us each two beers and we ended up sitting in the Crows Nest for two hours sharing stories with each other.  Our day was further enhanced at our third formal dinner.  Although you must be thinking we had some incredible meal, this is not the reason why we had such a great evening.  The couple that sits across from us is a lovely American couple that moved to Sydney 40 years ago.  We have chatted with them many times and formed a nice relationship, and tonight they gave us wonderful suggestions of things we must experience in Sydney, and let us know that they had been writing down a whole list for us so that we can have a guide to follow once in Sydney.  Too sweet.  A successful day at sea!