January 30 - “Back at Sea”

Back at sea ... again.  Back to really not much to do.  We did have a little excitement, though.  As I was waiting for Chris to get ready for the day, I heard a cry of distress from the bathroom. Of course I raced over to see whatever could be wrong.  The bathroom is just not that big, you know.  Well, as Chris lathered up for her shower, suddenly there was no water to our stateroom.  Not just no hot water ... no water.  Luckily she was almost done and didn’t have shampoo in her hair.  But while she bemoaned her fate and I pondered yet another call to guest services, the water just as suddenly returned.  So ... a few moments of fear and trembling to start the day.  Just what we needed to get the old adrenaline flowing.

We walked a half a mile on the track on the top deck, but then decided to take our exercise down a few levels.  The wind was wreaking havoc on my hairdo, since I couldn’t keep my hat on.  Didn’t want to lose that to the waves.  And where do you go to finish a stroll indoors?  The shopping level, of course.  We had to finish our shopping.  Well, that’s not actually true.  Who am I kidding?  We’ll never finish shopping.  We did find one picture of us that we wanted to buy.  We will have quite the portfolio of those when we get home.

After a quick stop in our room to drop off our new load of goodies, we went out to resume our walk.  But no.  Alas, it was just too hot.  So instead we went to the dining room for some hot chocolate.  I know.  Makes no sense to me, either.  But it is cold in the dining room, so there’s that ...

After a burrito lunch with a couple from Clear Lake, we went on a tour of the ship’s galley.  That was really a highlight.  Not so much because of the kitchen itself, though.  It was the people.  The head chef is from India.  He told us things like how many thousands of pounds of ground beef and bananas they go through every cruise.  His budget is somewhere north of $300,000 per cruise.  But his crew had carved intricate designs into things like watermelons and assorted other fruits.  One of them was just finishing up carving an ice sculpture of a dolphin.  And the bakers showed off their skills in cake-making as well.  There was one chocolate creation that could have easily won one of those shows on the Food Channel.  Pretty impressive stuff.

After lunch we found out there had been an earthquake between Cuba and Jamaica the day before.  Not far from where we were a few days ago.  Huh ... not far from where we are now.  We did get a notice though ... “No tsunami expected to affect our cruise.”  Thanks for that ...

We spent the afternoon reading and napping, not necessarily in that order.  In fact, I think it is possible there may have been some overlapping.  I’m pretty sure I read page 127 at least 17 times.

We passed on the super-formal night and on having our picture taken with the captain.  It was a wise decision.  It looked like at least 2,498 of the ship’s 2,999 passengers were in line.  Instead we grabbed a Guy’s burger and watched “Back to the Future” on the giant screen up on deck.

In keeping with the 50’s theme of the day, we went to the 50’s live musical show and then to the sock hop in the atrium.  All that 50’s stuff kept us up late.  But we are up and at ‘em.  Honduras today ...

John 16:33 says, “I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace.  In this world you will have trouble.  But take heart!  I have overcome the world.”

Father, thank you for protecting us and the people of Cuba and Jamaica from the effects of that earthquake.  Amen.