February 2 - “The last ...”

We woke for our day at sea ... again.  Last one.  We had our last cup of room service coffee and chocolate milk before heading to breakfast (Not the last one.  We do get to eat today).

The skies were cloudy once we rounded the Yucatán Peninsula and got into the Gulf of Mexico for our last leg home.  It was noticeably cooler, too.  Of course the cloudy, overcast skies contributed to the coolness as well.

We did the last little bit of shopping on board.  While we accomplished that we also managed to fit in some time to just talk with Pat and Jim and then to Carol about our respective perspectives regarding the cruise.  A little debriefing, if you will.

The last new person I met was a Methodist pastor from Palestine.  No, not that one.  Texas.  Both of us have been incognito on the cruise.

We spent the better part of our last afternoon dozing (OK ... sleeping) and reading.  I finally finished a book.  Chris was working on her fourth.  Hey, but I also watched three movies over the course of the two weeks.

We went to the last supper with the group put together by Randy and Janet.  I think there were 17 of us there.  Great group of new friends.  Prime rib for me this time.  Chris had some kind of Cajun shrimp dish.  Sorry I haven’t recorded what we ate each night.  Most of the time I couldn’t pronounce it, much less spell it.

We finished out the last night by slipping into the back row of the theater to watch the last show of the cruise.  It was all about a lip sync contest that had been going on, mixed with a lot of dancing by the crew.  When it ended we kind of sat tight, waiting for the crowd to thin out a bit.  All of a sudden an elderly gentleman we had never met stopped in his trek down the aisle toward the door.  He pointed a gnarled finger at us and said something along the lines of, “Uh Huh.  I know why you two kids have been sitting here on this back row.  I know what you were doing ...”. He followed that up with a sly wink and moseyed on out the door.  Great last memory ...

Philippians 2:13 says, “For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.”

Father, thank you for the quick healing of those in our group who were quarantined for a time this trip.  Keep them all safe now as they travel the last leg to their various homes ... on land.  Amen.