March 19 - “Pickleball Day … or not”

We met Arturo from the Philippines at breakfast. He was very excited about getting to Barcelona. One reason was that it would be a chance to get off the ship. But the main reason was … so he could go to church. He was especially excited to see Sagrada Família. He wanted to thank God for the chance to see His world. So do we, Arturo. So do we. 

From there we went to the Guest Services desk. We were going through our excursions tickets, and Chris noticed that she didn’t have a ticket for our excursion in Malaga. We went right up to the counter (no line at all).  The girl there entered us into the computer and zap! There we were. She printed out a ticket and we were off in less than three minutes. 

From there we went walking again. We already did our prayer walk for deck 14 (There is no deck 13. This is like a superstitious floating hotel). So this one was just for fun. We watched some people play pickleball. I thought it would give me a head start on our pickleball class last night. Nope. I still knew nothing about the game, other than it uses a net, oversized ping pong paddles, and a wiffle ball. 

It just so happened that the zip line was right next door to pickleball. Couldn’t pass that one up. Chris wouldn’t go, so I opted to go solo. It was a lot of fun. I enjoyed joking around with the new guy working as a safety expert.  And no, it didn’t bother my neck or my back. Done and done. Well, for me. Chris still wants to go. Hey. YOU stop her. 

We had a time change at 2 pm. Had to match up with Nassau, Bahamas time. That put us at Eastern. So … one hour gone, six to go. 

After a pretty good nap again in the afternoon (guess we could get used to this), we grabbed some dinner (some French stuff I couldn’t pronounce). Then it was … pickleball time. 

We gathered with the other 9 people on board who knew nothing about pickleball. After a crash course in technique, we got on the court and started hitting back and forth. Gently. And just as  Francisco, our Portuguese teacher started us on a longer type hit … it started raining. That was it. We were all at risk anyway (being a certain age), so he was taking no chances. We went back inside and he explained the rules. Sort of. I can pretty well guarantee that none of us were following everything he said. At one point his partner interrupted him. The class had been rescheduled to next Thursday, if we could come back. We all agreed. Why not? So next Thursday it is! 

And since we were now still able to walk, we decided to go back to the Royal Theater. Ryan Malloy, the Frankie Valli guy, and the Dreamers were back for “ an all-new” performance. I liked this one better than the last. I recognized some of the songs. And the finale had everyone on their feet, singing along. Great way to end the day. 

‭‭1 John‬ ‭4‬:‭4‬ says, You are from God, little children, and you have conquered them, because the One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

Father, be with our pickleball mates. Keep us all healthy until we can hit the courts again. Amen. 

March 18 - “Explorations”

Yesterday was explore-the-ship day. That fit in really well with our Lent assignment to prayer walk one level of the ship every day. After breakfast we walked through deck 12, praying for the cruisers (especially those with names on the doors) and room stewards. By the way, our guy is named Maali. He’s from Indonesia. 

Next we strolled around the public areas of the ship. That included their take on New York’s Central Park. It’s even called that. They have carved out a niche in the center of the boat, planted some trees and bushes, and named it Central Park. (Humph. Imagine that - Central Park in the Central Part. Creative). 

We took a selfie over near the carousel. All looked fine until we got photobombed by Zoltar. Yep. Same guy from the movie “Big.”  As of now we don’t feel any younger than usual. 

On one of the decks we joined in on the tail end of an exercise class of sorts. Just in time for the cooldown stretches. That’s the way to do it! On another deck we sat still enough that I fell asleep. Also the way to do it. Can’t waste a minute, you know. 

We finished up the morning by getting a game card for the cruise-long scavenger hunt. The idea is to get signatures from as many different countries as possible. While waiting we struck up a conversation with some folks from Nebraska. It amazes us the sheer number of cruises people have been on. 

We did finally get a game card. Come to find out, it was only for places the crew is from.  I thought it was for random fellow cruisers. Oh well. It was still interesting to see how many countries are represented in the crew (more than 60 different countries). 

We took a nap after lunch. Just a plain old afternoon nap. Loved it. I woke before Chris and got involved in a weirdly convoluted futuristic movie about AI robots vs. humans. Humans turned out to be the bad guys. Imagine that …

I did a little pranking of one of our tablemates after dinner. Joe left his hat. His wife grabbed it for him,  but I got it from her and put it on. As we walked out, it finally dawned on him that he didn’t have it. He turned and asked his wife to go get it for him. I was standing right next to her. He never saw it. Chris finally started over-exaggeratedly pointing at my head. He looked at me kind of dumfounded.  I guess he couldn’t believe that the new guy/retired pastor would do such a thing. Good times. 

The showtime was a musical event. Actually it amounted to a concert by a group pretending to be Frankie Valli and the Dreamers.  I figured it couldn’t be the real deal. I looked up Frankie Valli. He’s 91 years old. And after hearing these guys, he probably would pass out. Don’t get me wrong. When they did Frankie’s songs, they were eerily spot-on. But then they digressed into some strange rap-type stuff. I couldn’t understand what they were singing. Musically - really good. Communication-wise - not so much. 

‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭3‬:‭5‬-‭6‬ says, Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding; think about Him in all your ways, and He will guide you on the right paths.

Father, be with those folks on the 12th floor. Draw them to yourself. And help them have a great cruise. Especially the newlyweds. Amen. 

March 17 - “Reboot, already”

Yesterday morning was an absolute flurry of activity. You know … all those hundreds of tiny details that just MUST be completed before departing on any trip, much less one where no Walmart will be available for three weeks. But we (Read here SHE. I pretty much just followed orders) got it all done - and done by about 9:45. That meant a little over an hour of just waiting, though. And Chris is not so good at waiting. 

Our chauffeurs finally arrived right on time. Jachin and Micah came to haul us over to the big boat. Micah is going to be babysitting our car while we are gone, so he came along to pick that up (Shhh. Chris thinks he came just to tell us goodbye). 

We made it into the terminal at exactly our designated time - 11:30 - only to find out that their WiFi was completely down. Nobody could be checked onto the boat. It wasn’t all bad, though. We met some new people. I even let the line attendant borrow my hoodie. She was a petite little thing, and she was freezing. 

They finally got rebooted, and we made it on board around 12:30. And we were lucky. On our way to our room, we passed our luggage in the hallway. We just grabbed it and did the honors ourselves. 

We met up with Lynn and Stephanie from church. She had organized a group to prayer walk the entire ship. Apparently 25 or 30 of us will be prayer walking the shop, deck by deck, and praying for the crew, the cruisers, and even the entertainers. Watch out, Harmony of the Seas. Jesus …

Last night we were seated at the dinner table with Lynn and Stephanie and four of their friends. That’ll be our dinner group every night, so I guess we’ll have some more friends by Spain. 

After dinner we went to one of the shows. A ventriloquist named Kevin Johnson. He was acclaimed as one of the top ten ventriloquists in the world. He was really good. I mean, he was no Darcy Lynn, but who is?

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭105‬:‭1‬ says, Give thanks to Yahweh, call on His name; proclaim His deeds among the peoples.

Father, bless our new tablemates. Give them a fun and relaxing cruise. Amen. 

March 16 - “Let’s go!”

We had a real-live discernment meeting at church. That’s Seaside code for a business meeting. It’s been a while since we have been in town for one. The church made four basic decisions. Didn’t really have to vote. We just reached a consensus and moved on. I love it. Feels so … biblical. 

We left pretty quickly (especially for us - we’re still usually among the last to leave). But we had to get home and get changed so we could race out to Cailyn’s soccer game in Deer Park. As it turned out, we were ten or fifteen minutes late. Sadly the bad guys were ahead 2-0. But on a positive note, they didn’t score any more after we arrived. Guess the goals were our fault for not being present. That ended up being the final score. Sorry for not getting there sooner, girls. 

From there it was back home to enter the final stretch in our preparations to leave for the big boat. A few more loads of clothes to wash, then laying out which of those would make the cut. And finally, of course, cramming it all into suitcases and backpacks. I think we’re ready. Now we wait for our ride to the dock. See ya in a few weeks. Let’s go!

‭‭James‬ ‭5‬:‭13‬ says, Is anyone among you suffering? He should pray. Is anyone cheerful? He should sing praises.

Father, please hop on this boat with us. Amen. 

March 15 - “Underdogs”

We had an early stop to make yesterday morning. Just a quick pop into the bank to get a notary signature for some paperwork for a friend. Fortunately the manager was there, and she knows me. She took us into her office and got it done quickly. Thanks, Brandi. 

Then we hit road for our trek north to watch Ezra play football. We gave it an hour lead time for the twenty minute trip. Why? The roads were closed for construction. And the resulting traffic was ridiculous. Wonderful. We averaged a brisk 2 miles per hour for a long time. 

But we did make it - just before halftime. And we were glad we did. After an entire season of frustration, the good guys entered this postseason tournament as the massive underdogs. 

But wait! Somehow they won their first game. And since there were only four teams entered, that miraculously put them into  the championship game against the team coached by two ex-football players. The coaches had consistently shown bad sportsmanship in every game all year, loudly gloating over every victory. And their team WAS very good. 

This final game was no exception. Add to that a pretty bad ref, and you have a not so good combination. For example, the ref at one point called a safety against the other team- not once, but three times in a row. For some reason he kept giving them another chance. Our assistant coach even got kicked off the field for “politely requesting a more in-depth explanation for the strange calls” (I see you, Jachin). Fortunately, head coach Kel managed to keep a cool head. 

In the end though, the outcome was … Champs! The unheralded Cinderellas snatched the trophy.  Ezra played a few great games, at quarterback, center/receiver, and defensive back. He even had a pick six - an interception for a touchdown. We are proud of you, Ezra! (You, too, Coaches). 

‭‭Esther‬ ‭4‬:‭14‬ says, If you keep silent at this time, liberation and deliverance will come to the Jewish people from another place, but you and your father’s house will be destroyed. Who knows, perhaps you have come to your royal position for such a time as this.

Father, thank you for those little underdogs today. Always fun to see them having fun. Amen. 

March 14 - “The Nana and Dad Pantry Caper”

We started our day with a trip into Texas. Chris had to pick up one of her medications that had to come from the specialty pharmacy. That one was no problem. But they told her that the other med she gets from them will cost $900 next time she needed it. Nope. Needless to say, she asked them to start proceedings to update our status to needing the maximum assistance possible. Waiting to hear from them. 

On the way home, we stopped at Walmart. Just a few things this time. Dry mouth drops, part for the toilet that broke, and food for dinner on the grounds tomorrow. 

Our packing is progressing. And all the last minute adjustments to scheduling are falling into place. We had to decide whether to move back our hotel-to-airport pick up time from 7:30 to 6:30. We took the earlier time to give us the full three hour lead time before our flight. 

We had a surprise exciting visit yesterday afternoon. Cailyn and six or seven (I see you, Ezra) of her closest friends stopped by on their way home from a day at the beach. They didn’t bring any food with them, so of course the Nana and DadDad Pantry was the logical stopping place. It was a lot of fun watching them devour an entire box of fruit snacks and a roll of ritz crackers and an entire roll of summer sausage. Not to mention the comments they made looking at our pictures on the wall and the stuffed animal horde.  And one of them (I see you, A.J.), spent the whole time snuggling with Freddy. Oh, and then there was one of them (who will not be named) who is convinced that a marriage to Zak is in her future. And yes, she knows he is engaged. Ah, what a tangled web …

‭‭Genesis‬ ‭1‬:‭1‬ says, In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Father, be with those young ladies who were here for a visit. Draw them close to you. Amen. 

March 13 - “Palm Prep”

H&R Block finally called back. Sam’s final tax return was ready to be picked up. Well … almost ready. The very first page the preparer showed me had my name spelled wrong. I thought she was gonna check out right there. 

Come to find out she had worked hours to get the computer operations to accept this kind of return. In fact, she had spent three or four hours the night before with a retired preparer who was the resident expert before her retirement. Together they had figured it out, so me pointing out a simple typo was devastating. She got it changed, though, and I finally walked out with a completed form ready for mailing. Glad to be done with that phase. 

Chris had the dentist appointment this time. She made a point to inform me that hers was “just for a cleaning.” She didn’t have to call off the x-ray / doctor visit dogs like I did. Go ahead and rub it in. 

While she was gone, I made palm crosses for Palm Sunday. We will be somewhere in Spain when Palm Sunday hits, but I thought it would be fun to have some to give away. Also, I made a bag of extras in case Seaside wanted to have some on hand.

‭‭Romans‬ ‭5‬:‭1‬ says, Therefore, since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Father, thanks for Chris’ good report from the dentist. Amen.