January 31 - “Dinner Dancing (not dirty)”

We went to school yesterday. Yep. Of course we were late for class, but we didn’t get scolded or anything. OK. It was the Origa-towel folding class. In our 30 minutes there we folded a towel to look like a dog, then a bear, and finally a penguin. The one little girl nearby (watching over my feeble attempts) said I could take it back to my stateroom, but the guy with the mic was pretty adamant that we turn the towels in before we leave. 

We were so encouraged by our raging success at origa-towels, we decided to go to another class where they showed us how they cook the food we have been eating. The executive chef was a guy originally from Boston who lives in Alaska now. His presentation was a lot of fun. The guy had a great sense of humor. Reminded me of the famous TV baker who is based on the East coast (I guess not that famous. I can’t remember his name). 

He (well, actually his assistant chef did all the work) showed how they made a salmon chowder, Alaska style. The taste of the soup part alone was kinda odd. But when we mixed it with the biscuit they gave us, it wasn’t all that bad. (But I still don’t really like salmon).

After some lunch we adjourned back to our room. Yup. Nap time. We just couldn’t help it. 

Then we went up to the Lido Deck. We wanted to see if we could get a glimpse of Cuba as we passed by. Guess we were too far away.  Nothing but water. 

I must confess. I took part in some dancing last night.  Dinner dancing. Not dirty … dinner. After the meal the waiters all break into a dance. I have consented to join them each night. Most of the time the dances have been semi-choreographed. This time, however … free style all the way, baby!  One of the ladies at our table even joined us this time. I heard that the performance was captured for Facebook stardom. The guy sitting next to me predicted 250,000 hits by morning. I don’t know about that. I haven’t seen that video. But I did have fun. 

‭‭James‬ ‭1‬:‭22‬ says, But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

Father, thank you for the good-natured waiters and fellow cruisers for their encouragement on the dance floor. Bless them all. Amen. 

January 30 - “Ocho Rios, Jamaica”

Our big tour for Jamaica was called “Panoramic View of Ocho Rios”. It turned out to be a pretty good overview of scenery, vegetation, and even a little bit of “local color” (read here, “the guys on the side of the road selling Reggae brownies and cannabis gummies, and the teenager doing back handsprings down the hill in front of the bus”).

We drove through the Fern Gully Rain Forest. That’s where we learned that the word “Jamaica” means land of trees and water. We also heard that the only wild critter is the mongoose. We did see some goats roaming around here and there, though. Oh, and we saw the former vacation home of Diana Ross. Mick Jagger had one there as well. 

The tour guide told us the official language of the island was English. Not what I was hearing when she talked to the bus driver. Even when she assumed focus and spoke to us on the mic, I was still confused by how some words were pronounced, especially if they began with the letter “H”. Sometimes they enunciate it. Other times it is silent. Here are some examples from the mouth of our illustrious tour guide:

High school - eye school

Hour - hower 

Health - elth 

Hundred - undred 

Hurricane - urricane 

See? Confusing. 

We stopped at a shopping place. The guide described it in exactly the same way we describe Walmart. One stop shopping. Basically … tourist trap. They did give us half price on almost everything. And they accepted credit cards … if you were willing to pay the extra fee involved. We finished our souvenir shopping there. 

Our final stop was a lunch place.  We ordered a meal of jerk chicken and festivals (something like hush puppies) and a soda (Pepsi. No Coke). Had to at least try the local cuisine. It wasn’t nearly as spicy as I expected. But then, I didn’t add any of the sauce. She warned us that it was the kind that “comes out the same way it goes in - hot.”  Nope. Not for me.  

We spent a few hours in the afternoon back on the ship talking to our friends Joe and Cindy. It was great catching up with all their news and sharing what’s going on with us. 

‭‭1 Samuel‬ ‭2‬:‭2‬ says, There is no one holy like the Lord. There is no one besides You! And there is no rock like our God.

Father, thank you for yet another chance to experience a totally different culture. It was even fun listening to them talk to each other. Amen. 

January 29 - “Unusual, to be sure”

Yesterday was … unusual, to be sure. Oh, there were no exciting shoes excursions. There wasn’t even a fabulous musical production by the ship’s performance team. In fact it was just a day at sea. That’s all. The high point of our travel was the sighting of a southern point of the Jaragua National Park in the Dominican Republic. It was about 20 miles away. We did walk a few laps around the ship to get some steps in (and to keep working off the calories from all the food). 

But the hardest part of it all was the time change. It was wreaking absolute havoc on our systems as we tried to adjust. Our watches and phones gave up trying. Best I could figure, it went like this. We left Galveston in the central time zone. Somewhere before Key West our phones GPS switched to Eastern time, and the ship announced a tine change to match. Then things got a little crazy. 

As we sailed further East, we apparently hit the Atlantic zone, and our phones adjusted. The ship did not. So we had to remember to subtract an hour. Then as we sailed back west, the ship announced another time change. But not to match where we were. No. The ship was now back on Galveston’s Central time. But our phones were still on Atlantic time, so now there was a two hour difference as we headed for Jamaica. Our bodies didn’t know when it was time for breakfast or lunch or dinner. We finally just succumbed and took a nap. Good thing we had a manual clock in our room or we would’ve been completely lost. 

We did have one near-catastrophe in the afternoon. The toilet wouldn’t flush. We went out to report it to the steward. He was already on the phone reporting another room. And while we waited for him to complete his phone call, a lady from a room down the hall approached with the same difficulty. Whew! Three in one. Tough day for that poor steward. 

It got worse. As we walked down the stairs we ran into another steward just leaving a public bathroom … where the toilet didn’t flush. And then another around the corner. This could have been a real nightmare. We trusted the process, though, and went about our ambling. Sure enough, by the time we returned to the room for that aforementioned nap, all was well in the plumbing department. ‘Twas but a momentary glitch. 

We had a very leisurely dinner with our new friends Jay and Brenda, Bill and Pam, and Shelley (I thought her name was Kelley. Got that clarified last night). The first four are all Christians, so we talked about church experiences  (Jay and I were both raised Episcopalian), told stories about past cruises (We are the rookies in that category. Both couples have been on many, many more than us for many, many more years), and compared the respective health of each other’s spouses (the ladies seem to have a monopoly on all the medical issues, while us guys can eat what we want and seem to have no issues at all).

After dinner we went to the mentalist performance. Every time I hear that word I think about that TV show, The Mentalist. It was a fun one. We’ll have to find it and binge it when we get back. This guy was named Banachek. He was apparently a Las Vegas headliner. He was a pretty good entertainer along with being good at what he does. 

And now we set foot on Jamaica, our last port before heading home to Galveston. 

‭‭Philippians‬ ‭4‬:‭6‬ says, Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

Father, bless our dinner companions. Give them a safe and fun rest of the cruise. Amen. 

January 28 - “St. Thomas and St. John’s”

We got late word that our excursion for St. Thomas was postponed by an hour. That put us returning at exactly the time we are supposed to be on the ship. Cutting it tight there. 

While we are on the subject, we started wrestling with what time it actually was. Our phones show Atlantic time. Ship’s time is with Eastern. Galveston is Central. The ship announced a time change for last night, so I think we are back to Galveston time now. 

With all that phantom time on our hands, we left the ship and took a walk. The  only place close enough was a mall (a course). We strolled around the shops there for a while, then went back on the ship. 

Since we would be gone through the lunch hour, and no food was provided, we grabbed an early slice of pizza. Finally, we could 

 think of nothing else to kill time, so we headed back outside to our excursion gathering spot - only 45 minutes early. It didn’t take long, though, for the line to start forming. 

And before we knew it, we were boarding a ferry to our next stop - St. John’s island. The ride lasted 35 or 40 minutes. The water was just choppy enough to make the ride interesting. The captain did a pretty good job pointing out places of interest off in the distance, like Gator Rock, an island formation that looked just like a massive gator, and a huge mansion that used to belong to Michael Jordan. 

Once on St. John’s, it was transfer to a tour bus - the open air kind. Our driver / tour guide was a reggae musician named Jupiter “because people say I’m far out” (that’s how he introduced himself). He knew his history, and told it with the flair of an island storyteller (including some rather risqué insinuations). He was also fond of pointing out sites associated with famous - or infamous - characters. Among the first was a mansion that supposedly belonged to Kenny Chesney. I understand he’s also a musician? Among the latter were two islands that used to belong to Jeffrey Epstein. He’s not thought very highly of around here by anybody. 

Remember what I said about cutting it tight? Our water taxi was the last one to return to the ship. In fact, they were pulling up the gangplanks as we walked up. But we made it. Whew!

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭143‬:‭10‬ says, Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God. May Your gracious Spirit lead me on level ground.

Father, thanks for the safety in that water taxi and especially in that tour bus.  Amen. 

January 27 - “Soualiga, Sint Maarten, San Martin, Saint Maarten, SXM”

We pulled into our next port right on time - around 8 a.m.  another Holy Island - St. Maartens. Or one of its other names - Soualiga, Sint Maarten, San Martin, Saint Maarten, and SXM. 

Us and 40 or 50 of our closest friends packed into a beautiful new bus (no sarcasm. It actually was beautiful, and it looked brand new. Luck of the draw, I guess) for our excursion.

Ash was the name of our tour guide / bus driver. He was quite knowledgeable and … talkative. Great profession to match with that guy’s gifts. 

We saw quite a few local critters and evidences of life in one way or another. A wild monkey in a tree. The brown pelican is the national bird. Wild peacocks. Wild sheep. 

Horses and cows. Frigate birds. A wild pig (Chris saw it, I didn’t). Even a feral cat. 

Hurricane Irma devastated much of the island, and evidence of the damage is still rampant. 

A bit of history … the early ships that landed unloaded their ballast stones and replaced it with product from the island (mainly salt). The locals used the ballast stone extensively for building homes and walls. 

This island had a fort of their own - Fort Louis. It is way up on one of the highest mountains. 

At the requisite economic stop (local people selling their wares). They had two bathroom options. Either use the deluxe private one and pay 1 euro (or 1 dollar) or use public ones (and leave a tip).

Chris has been looking for a hat to block some of the sun. She found just the one. And wouldn’t you know it? Her long lost “sista” gave her a deal on it. And of course, we got a picture of the two. Cute. 

Oh, I forgot. The original name for the island came from the earliest natives, Soualiga, meaning salt island. There are even three flags. One Dutch, one French, and the Soualiga, which represents the unity between Dutch and French and locals. 

On the way home we stopped at the famous beach where planes fly very low as they land at the adjacent airport. As we watched a few land and take off, we enjoyed a smoothie of mango, apple, passion fruit, and strawberry. It was surprisingly quite good. Very refreshing. 

On the way back to the bus we met someone new. I was wearing my Galveston Fire Department hat and my Jamaica Beach Volunteer Fire Department shirt. A lady approached and asked if we lived in Jamaica. I said we go to church there. She asked which church, and I explained the location as the church at the light. From that she asked if we knew Brent and Natalie. Indeed we did! Come to find out, Marilyn was Natalie’s sister. We chatted until the bus returned. Small world. 

Near our last stop we saw the longest zip line in the islands. Even saw two people coming down. That’s a loooong way. Looked like so much fun. 

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭8‬:‭3‬-‭4‬ says, When I observe Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You set in place, what is man that You remember him, the son of man that You look after him?”

Father, thank you for random connections. Help Marilyn have a great trip, and be with Brent and Natalie. Bless them. Amen. 

January 26 - “St. Kitts”

We pulled into St. Kitts around 8 a.m.  There were already no less than three cruise ships in port, so we took the final open spot. Again, it was fun to watch the Pilot boat load on the pilot who would get us into position to do the docking. It always gives me a greater appreciation for and a sense of pride in what my Dad did for years. 

I think I forgot to mention … yesterday while we were returning from our excursion, we saw a sea turtle swimming around the ship. Pretty cool to see one in the wild. 

Our afternoon was taken by a tour of St. Kitts. I was impressed when we loaded into the tour bus, and the driver had a church service playing on the radio. From what we heard of it … great sermon. Way to go, God!

So far I have nailed all the Episcopal churches before they were identified by the tour guide. 

At a stop at a botanical gardens, we witnessed a random traffic altercation. The streets there were extremely narrow, and people park on the side of the road anyway they want. You just have to go around on the wrong side and wait for each other. Oh, and it is required that you honk when you get a chance. In this case, two cars were facing each other, head on. One had nowhere to move to. The other wasn’t willing to back up. It took the efforts of five tour guides all yelling at once to solve the problem. I admit, it was fun to watch. 

We saw some island critters. I learned how to tell the difference between sheep and goats. Sheep tail down, goat tail up. Got it. There were plenty of those wild chickens on the island. 

We drove to the very edge of their rain forest. Lots of banana trees, but the no bananas. Why?Monkeys! There are double the number of monkeys to humans on island. We didn’t see any. Monkeys, I mean. We did see humans. We saw a Saman tree that was 400 years old. Looked like  … a big old tree. 

We stopped at what i would describe as a glorified Caribbean quilt shop. They have an amazing technique of creating colors on fabric using wax. They called it Batik. Chris had heard of it in her quilting circles. 

We passed the gravesite of Samuel Jefferson. He was a bigwig in the island’s history. He was also the great, great, great grandfather of Thomas Jefferson. At least I think I got that right. 

Our next stop was the island’s fort. This one was quite impressive. It’s just ruins now. Well, and a gift shop, of course. It was a pretty extreme hike to get up to it, but it was well worth it. Besides the fascinating architecture of the fort, the views were nothing short of fabulous. I was really proud of Chris. She made it the whole way up and back down with her extremely sore hip and back and foot, not to mention her fragile heart and her difficulty breathing. That’s one phenomenal lady. 

Then we stopped at the narrowest point of the island where we could see the Atlantic Ocean on one side and the Caribbean Sea on the other. Awesome view. And to top it off, I found the monkeys. Well, two of them anyway. Some guy had trained them to not bite the tourists’ ears off. I got a picture with the two of them on my head. Monkeys!

My favorite tour guide quote: “We have an army of only about 300 people, so we’re not looking to fight with anybody.”

Last night was “Elegant Dining” night. We were supposed to dress to the hilt. Chris wore a very pretty dress. I wore my slacks and a Hawaiian shirt. Very dressy for me. 

After dinner we went over to the main auditorium for the night’s show. The entertainer was a magician / comedian. Pretty funny guy. Did some basic magic tricks, but his gift was connecting with the audience. 

‭‭1 John‬ ‭4‬:‭15‬ says, Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God — God remains in him and he in God.

Father, please give Chris a restful night after that tough climb. Amen. 

January 25 - “Christiansted”

We had to walk through the rain to our tour bus that was taking us to our walking tour. Wet. We then transferred to a somewhat larger bus - that was open air. Still no cover from the rain.  Go figure. 

The rain did eventually stop, and our little bus ride lasted a harrowing 30 or 45 minutes - the driver was Wild and Crazy. It was fun! And I learned a new word - Cruzans. I know. It sounds like a curse straight out of Harry Potter. But that’s what the people of St. Croix call themselves. Like … Galvestonians. 

The tour guide was a little old lady. Don’t let her fool you though. She was a retired teacher of Spanish and French who spoke perfect English. She gave us the lowdown on the key buildings and the fort in Christiansted. I got a kick out of her trivia. Did you know why everything on the island had “Christian” or “Frederick” in the name?  Because the kings of Denmark are perpetually named either Christian or Frederick. Weird. 

She also revealed a little known fact. The entire city of Christiansted was built using yellow bricks. That’s right, folks. We were on a tour of the actual city of Oz! Spoiler alert. It was nothing like the movie. 

There were also a lot of mahogany trees on the island. My all-time favorite wood. You can’t cut any down, though, without a permit. And they don’t issue permits. 

Perhaps the most interesting story  was about some local artifacts. It seems china (the kind you eat off of) was being imported from Holland and Denmark back in the 1600’s - early 1700’s. Unfortunately, much of the china cargo (Chaney, in Dutch) was destroyed in the passage over, so they threw the pieces overboard. Those discarded pieces still wash up on shore, especially after hurricanes. For many years they were considered a nuisance.  Then some crafty entrepreneur came up with an idea (as crafty entrepreneurs do). Jewelry. Now the people make gorgeous jewelry out of the broken pieces of china - Chaney. 

‭‭Lamentations‬ ‭3‬:‭25‬ says, The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the person who seeks Him.

Father, bless that little lady who guided us around. She’s a sweetheart. A scary one, but sweet, indeed. Amen. 

January 24 - “San Juan”

We had quite the anticipatory morning. The ship was due to dock at San Juan, Puerto Rico, but not until around 1:30. They kept making announcements asking everyone to wait in the common areas instead of blocking the stairways to the exit level. Reckon they have had some folks on previous trips not behave?

We grabbed a slice of pizza and went back up to our room to watch docking from our balcony. We were surprised by an unexpected announcement. They were once again switching time zones, and the ship’s official time was now an hour earlier. How about getting a little more confusing?  

We walked around San Juan. I mean literally. We hiked an entire loop around old town San Juan. In those 11,651 steps (about 4.7 miles), we explored two massive castles (At one a small group started randomly singing Amazing Grace in a small chapel - beautiful), saw a very colorful outdoor basketball court, saw a hotel that has been transformed from a convent (guess the name of the hotel- The Convent), saw a really pretty cathedral and a gorgeous tiny chapel, saw a lady letting hundreds of pigeons roost on her - just like the lady in Home Alone, stopped at a souvenir shop and bought, of all things, a Puerto Rico Roberto Clemente jersey, took my picture next to one of those giant chair photo op places, and someone may or may not have even danced a bit in the rain (hint: it was NOT Chris). Whew! We earned those almost five miles. 

‭‭Romans‬ ‭8‬:‭1‬ says, Therefore, no condemnation now exists for those in Christ Jesus

Father, thank you once again for new experiences. Amen.