February 4 - “Here we go again”

We started our morning out with an eye on travel again. We signed up for our last cruise excursion coming up (the behind-the-scenes look at ship operations). As far as I can figure, the only thing left for us to do is fill out their  pre-cruise medical form. Can’t do that until the middle of March sometime. 

Then we turned our attention back to the land. We already had a reservation for a hotel this weekend (Wednesday -tomorrow  - through Sunday) for Caleb and Luke’s regional basketball tournament. All set to go on that one. Go Texas Wins!

If Caleb’s team ranks high enough in regionals, they will then have a state tournament in College Station next weekend. No hotel info available yet on that one, so we are waiting patiently …

Our next reservation was for the hotel we’ll be staying at for Zak and Lindsay’s wedding. That hotel is in Fairfield, so we locked in a room for those couple of nights. All set there. Well, except for writing the ceremony, but I’ll do that when we get back from Spain. 

Last night Jachin came by after work and had a slice of pizza here. It was fun hearing him talk about work and church and his new car and the World Baseball Classic. 

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭23‬:‭4‬ says, Even when I go through the darkest valley, I fear no danger, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff — they comfort me.

Father, thanks for Jachin. Be with him at work and home. Amen. 

February 3 - “On naps and dreams”

I remembered a classic word of wisdom that I heard on the cruise. One of the staffers was signing off of a session. He offered these words:

“Don’t give up on your dreams; Take more naps.”

That’s one I can sure get behind. 

Yesterday morning we hit the ground running. Chris had a mammogram appointment at 8:30 (she had to be there by 8), so no rest for the weary around here. All was well, by the way. The doc said top come back next year and do it again. 

We made some stops on the way home. First we went to Academy. Janell told us they were having a massive clearance sale. Best we could do there? I found an errant dime in the parking lot. Yay. 

Then it was on to Randall’s. I had a prescription ready to be picked up. In and out. Better than a fast food joint. 

And finally back home to keep going on the clothes washing. 

We got word in the afternoon that our neighbor and good friend’s mom died. We headed over to the hospital to support him. His wife joined us so that she could ride home with him. Please keep praying for Corey as they walk through these tough steps. 

‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭12‬:‭10‬ says, So I take pleasure in weaknesses, insults, catastrophes, persecutions, andin pressures, because of Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Father, please grant Corey comfort and wisdom and most of all peace. Amen. 

February 2 - “Back Home”

Back in port - Galveston port - and off the ship by around 9. April finally fought her way through the traffic and got us on the way home by a little before 10. 

For lunch we heated up some pizza we found leftover in the freezer. Nothing else to eat in the house except some candy and stones of the snacks we took on the cruise with us. 

After lunch we chatted with Janell, Brennan and Corey for a while. They, as always did a fabulous job talking care of Freddy while we were gone. 

We had to make a quick Walmart run. Absolutely zero groceries in the house. Feels good to have that taken care of.  

We stopped at Whataburger on the way home. Hey.  It’s not Guy’s Burgers on the shop, but you can’t beat Whataburger. Welcome home. 

Speaking of welcome home … we had a bit of a late night. We went up to the hospital to be with Corey and his family. His Mom was taken to the emergency room. It took forever for him to get in to see her. I mean to say, we were in the family waiting room for literally hours. Long enough that I feel asleep. That was a first for me. Hey. Guess I can’t handle late nights anymore. We all finally left around two after he got to see her. 

‭‭Luke‬ ‭1‬:‭46‬-‭47‬ says, And Mary said: My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior

Father, thank you for all the great experiences we had over the last two weeks. But it’s sure good to be home for a while. And please be with Corey’s mom. Amen.

February 1 - “Galveston”

Hmm. Galveston. Somehow that sounds vaguely familiar …

We were up and at ‘em by around 6 yesterday. Last full day aboard ship (at least for a couple of weeks. We already had to check in from here for our Royal Caribbean cruise). 

We attended another of the random sessions they offered. This one was to go over the Debarkation info. Actually, it was the same stuff that was on the handout we got the night before. But, hey. Some people are auditory learners. 

Just outside that session the ship store was having its final sale of the decade (well, of the two weeks, anyway). This one was a sale on their destination themed t-shirts. We found a few that we liked, so we used up the last of our onboard credit (that we just discovered we had).  Chris’ says Caribbean. Mine says Galveston.  Gotta support the home port, right?

Did I mention that it got cold again? The closer we got to Galveston the colder it got. Back to long sleeves and jeans. At lunch we decided on a Guy’s hamburger. That meant going outside and standing in line. The wind was gusting up to 40 miles per hour. My fries didn’t even stay warm! Good smash burger, though. 

We made it to one show in the afternoon. Staff combined with cruisers performing music and dancing from the 50’s. Best music all week. Well, except for the violins. I liked the violins. 

The rest of the afternoon we spent packing. Yep. Last day. That means today is departure day. Or disembark. Or whatever they call it. Here we go!

Oh, wait. I forgot dinner. I may or may not have been recruited by the waiters to join their evening dance event. I think I have figured out how to do the YMCA dance. At least the way they did it. It was lots of fun. That’s three good fellas we got to know. 

After dinner we went to the evening show. Some guy who came in fourth on The Voice season 22. He had a really powerful voice and some incredible range. 

‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭10‬:‭24‬ says, And let us be concerned about one another in order to promote love and good works

Father, thanks for a pretty amazing couple of weeks.  Bless all the folks we met for the first time. And bless Ibrahim and Atma and Gusti. Amen. 

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.