Team Trivia Sucks In Sitka

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We again headed to the Lido for breakfast. I chose to eat fried eggs over medium with French toast; while, Sharon also had the French toast with very crispy turkey bacon. We did the daily Sudoku Challenge in the Explorer’s Lounge, and this time Sharon beat me on the Easy game (by quite a margin). It was a different story on the Hard puzzle where Sharon threw up her hands and earned a DNF.

We had no tours planned for the second part of this two-week cruise. We waited some before going down to the tender and take the considerable journey ashore which takes over ten minutes. We only wanted to walk around Sitka. We considered walking out to the totem park; but, that looked to be a walk of a mile or so and the weather was looking a bit spotty, with skies that posed the threat of opening up. In town, we spotted an eagle perched on church spire. We snapped a picture before it flew off. They were charging adults an admission to go inside the church. I heard one woman say to her husband “We could send the kids in to see it.” I’m sure that would go over big with the kids.

We headed back to the Statendam and went up to the Dive-In where I ordered the chicken sandwich and the hot dog with sauerkraut. You know what Sharon had… Burger plain, fries naked. I opted for the chocolate chip and cookie dough waffle cone and Sharon had a bowl of chocolate ice cream.

At 3:30 we showed up for the daily Team Trivia challenge, eager to maintain our perceived lead, and totally unprepared for the utter disaster that was about to unfold. Our team had what can only be called a total meltdown. And we were getting beat by questions from previous cruises. The first question set the tone: “From what islands did Columbus sail in 1492 when he headed to and landed in the New World. I would have known the answer if I heard it, and I wasn’t confident when Sharon wrote down “Azores”, and no one else disagreed. I’m afraid though it was those “bird islands” (the Canary Islands). I’m pretty sure that had been on our Australian cruise. From our New England/Canada cruise came the question “Yung Street is the longest street in the world. What city is it in?” Sharon remembered that she knew that this was a previous question, which I also knew was somewhere in Canada, and we all agreed with Vancouver. Unfortunately the answer was (and still is) Toronto. What branch of mathematics derives its name from the Latin for pebbles? Sharon helped us out with “Geo” for earth and we agreed with Geometry. The sad truth is I think we actually got this one right on a previous cruise! Irene proposed calculus, and we really do need to listen to her This question I’m pretty sure had been on our Honeymoon cruise in the Mediterranean. This time we didn’t miss the number of dots on a pair of dice as we had sailing through the Hudson Bay. Irene had written down “21”, but I had written down “42” and she whispered “Ohhh, a ‘pair’ of dice!” I’m pretty sure that the team next to us that won this challenge heard this exchange because when we graded their paper they had crossed out “21” and changed it to the correct answer. We missed the first five questions, and shame on me for not writing down the right answer for the bonus: “How old does a member of the house of representatives need to be?” Our fall from grace was gleefully met by other challenge participants as we were in the Under 10 scorers (with 8) for the first time.

Sharon headed for mass and I changed for dinner in the cabin. Dinner is smart casual again. We were seated in the center island at the same table as the evening before. We were joined by two ladies that we’d eaten with during the first week of the cruise from Albuquerque. I ordered the corn and lobster chowder, which was quite good and also the Caprice Salad. Sharon had the Scottish broth. We both ordered prime rib and we got a generous piece of meat perfectly cooked. By comparison, the prime rib that was served to Sharon on the first night of our cruise out of Vancouver (the one week cruise) on the Noordam was quite a bit thicker than the prime rib served on the Statendam; still, what we were served tonight was easily 14 ounces. Sharon went with the chocolate mint baked Alaska; while, I had the Hazelnut mousse opera cake.

I sat down to play Blackjack after dinner, and had a fairly easy time getting about $20 ahead. It was about time that we needed to get a seat for the show, so I checked with Sharon. She was deeply involved in a game that was going back and forth with her. I went to save a seat for us. Sharon finally showed up about twenty minutes later, just in time for the start of the show. She had played all that time and eventually walked away $10 lighter.

Showtime was a reprise of the previous three guest acts, starting with Benji Hill, Don McEnery and Tricia Kelly. Benji juggled four different objects, a hatchet, juggling ball, Lido plate and a juggling ring. He noted that juggling unlike objects is considered particularly difficult, and that in doing so he said that he intended to catch one of them on the back of his neck. He observed, “I hope it’s the ball.” He juggled the hatchet and ball in his left hand only; while, the plate and ring were juggled with just his right hand, and he did catch the ball on the back of neck at the end. He told of a young fan that had written him a letter at the end of the first cruise that he’d ever performed on, saying that his dad had said that a really good juggler could juggle bowling balls. He then brought out a bowling ball, and tossing it up and down he looked at the audience observing, “You know, I’ve sort of had an epiphany. I no longer feel that it’s important, ‘how many’ things you juggle” still tossing the bowling ball up and down. Then he allowed the bowling ball hit the stage with a thud, and there was no doubt that this was indeed a 16 pound bowling ball. He did bring out 2 more bowling balls, dropping each of them on the stage floor a number of times. He smiled and said, “I’ll bet the folks in cabin 785 now know why they got such a good deal.” After toying with the audience, he did in fact juggle the 3 bowling balls. He ended his act by reminding us of the ping pong balls that he’d juggled with his mouth causing them to bang off a xylophone he held over his head. He said that after that performance he was looking for a place to put the ping pong balls and put them in his pants pocket. On his way back to his cabin he shared a cabin with a woman who was obviously eyeing the bulge in his pants. As the elevator neared his floor he remarked to her “Ping pong balls.” Without batting an eye she replied “You poor dear, if that’s anything like tennis elbow you must be in excruciating pain.”

Don McEnery performed next, and it was good to see that he can give a funny, family friendly act. Nobody walked out this time. Tricia Kelly showed off her phenomenal voice.

I walked over to the blackjack table and asked a man who was occupying the second chair and leaning on the third chair and playing on the second spot, if I could sit in the empty first base chair and play that spot. He said, “No.” He did move over and now played first base, so I sat down next to him. I knew exactly what was going to happen, and I smiled as it did. He lost the first hand; while, I won. He lost the next hand, and I pushed. He lost the third hand, and I pushed. He got up and left. I moved over to the spot I wanted. For a few hands I was playing by myself, as the center of the table got up and left. Soon others filled their spots and play bogged down. The couple sitting in the center two seats, were a little bit annoying. She didn’t know how to play and against a six she wanted to stand on a soft-16. He correctly suggested that she would lose nothing by hitting, so she did and got an ace. With soft-17 she hit again and got another ace. And I guess she figured she was supposed to keep doing this until she got to 21; because, she hit again, and dealer was more than happy to give her another card as soon as her hand moved slightly to take a card. He was as surprised as everyone when she had another ace, now holding a soft-19. She signaled for another card; but, this time the dealer asked “Are you sure?” I guess he figured he better stop this before she does get twenty-one. She deferred, everyone else stood. Unfortunately the dealer turned over a five for eleven, and followed that with a queen for twenty one (of course that extra ace that she took would have made the dealer bust). I was biding my time at the $5, engaging in my small parlay when I would get some winning streaks, which were keeping me close to even. Once I believed that cards had started to turn my way, and I made a $25 bet. Unfortunately the dealer had a blackjack. That happens; still, I decided it might not be best to continue to press, and it was good that I backed off because I lost the next four hands as well. I still was able to work my way back into the game, and again I felt the tide had changed, and I made another $25 bet. I came up short again, but felt I should try once more and bet $50. I got a pair of threes and the dealer had a five showing. The book says to split the threes, which I did, getting a five on the first hand and then a ten for 18. Dealer has a five and odds are the dealer will get a total of 13 on his next two cards; so, this hand is a toss up. I was dealt another three, which I also split. Then I got a jack for 13 on the second hand and was forced to stand on a stiff hand. I got another three and had to split that. Then I got an eight giving me an eleven on the third hand, and I was seeing a possible way out, but it required me to double down on the third hand. I had to pull another $50 out of my wallet to do this. I didn’t get the face card I was looking for; instead, I got a six for 17. I got a two and a nine on my fourth three for 14, so things weren’t looking too rosy. The dealer turned over a king for fifteen, so things looked better, and when a nine followed I started breathing again. It was time to call it a night.



And as for the age of those representatives, they must be at least 25, a fact I still remember from my high school civics class, but managed to convince myself that between now and then it had at some time been lowered. Guess that would have taken an amendment.

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