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Published: August 24th 2015
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Today is our anniversary. Happy anniversary to us! We had a very good day and it completes another very good year. We also got nice notes from the Brinks and from Elizabeth wishing us a happy anniversary. Thanks. And the cabin steward put balloons and a poster on our door announcing our anniversary to everyone who walks past.
This morning also was Laundry Day. We could not bring clothes for 14 days, so obviously there had to be a cleaning and resupply day near the middle of the overall trip. That was today. David got up a little before 7:00 and took the clothes down to the laundromat, but it did not open until 8:00. About 7:30 the Sieberts called and asked if we wanted to go to the formal breakfast with them. Janet went with them to have Eggs Benedict. There were some other people at the breakfast table and they got until a lively discussion of pheasant hunting. Or at least the others got into that discussion.
David went back to the laundry about 7:45. They were just unlocking the door when David arrived and
Janet & David
at the Pub Lunch he was able to get the wash going in all 4 of their machines. A couple of people came in just after 8:00 but they had to wait until his 35 minute wash cycles were done. A quick transfer to the dryers and David had 40 minutes to get up to the Horizon Buffet and have a filling breakfast too. Soon after he returned, the clothes were dry and he took them all back to the cabin. Janet had returned and we folded and hung clothes that will keep us looking nice (not to mention smelling nice) for the rest of the trip.
Today was very foggy right after sunrise but the clouds lifted by 9:30 and we had good weather most of the day. There is just a little roll to the ship today, but it provides a feeling of really being at sea instead of being in a huge hotel. Hopefully the weather will be good the rest of the time.
At 10:00 all four of us went down to the Deck-5 Atrium and watched the Fruit and Vegetable carving. These are always interesting
Jim & Kathy
at the Pub Lunch demonstrations and they don’t take very long either. We got a couple of pictures of the finished works.
Next door is the Internet Café. David had been able to get logged on last night and send the BLOG, but the connectivity was very weak and the link dropped several times. The IC manager said the system is not strong enough to work in all the cabins (especially up on deck-12 where we are) so we should come down to one of the public areas and the Internet will work better. Jim and Kathy were able to get her tablet connected at that time and she checked a few things, as did Janet with her tablet. But we will probably do all our work in the Internet Café for the remainder of the cruise.
One deck up from the Internet Café is one of many shops. They were having a sale on some of the end of season merchandise and Jim was able to get a very nice reversible weather-resistant jacket. Kathy got a souvenir cup and Janet got a green cruise T-shirt. Kathy had been able
All of us
outside our cabin - balloons for our anniversary to sample the Diet Coke and signed up for the beverage program (she did the same 5 years ago without sampling first and discovered afterwards that the European formula is different than the American formula and she did not like it at all) which included a souvenir cup. David had gotten his souvenir on the train.
Afterwards Kathy and Janet went back to their cabins to rest while Jim and David went to the complimentary Vodka tasting. We had half an hour to kill before the tasting could begin (they were very clear that they would not start while it was still morning) but at the stroke of noon we were near the front of a line of about 30 people. Jim tried two flavors called Rhubarb and Permafrost while David tried Blueberry and Alaskan Whisky. Blueberry was awful, Rhubarb had a sweet taste, and Permafrost and Alaskan Whisky tasted like good straight vodka (such as we had in St Petersburg). They were trying to sell bottles of the stuff and only gave about 1/8 inch sample in the bottom of a plastic Dixie Cup, but it was an interesting way to spend
Anniversary Kiss
with our special cake the time.
All four of us met up at 12:30 for a Pub Lunch. Everyone had Fish & Chips except David who had Bangers & Mash. Jim and David also had the Bread Pudding for dessert. It was a good lunch and we were sustained for a few more hours until the next meal.
We have been running into couples we knew from the land tour. Everyone seems to be having a good time. There seem to be a surprisingly large percentage of Orientals on this cruise. Maybe they are just more observable, but we do not remember this many on our other cruises.
All except David went to the 1:30 showing of the movie Cinderella. We expect the grandkids would enjoy it; however David decided to skip it. He went back to the cabin and had a nice rest. He went up to the Lido Deck (one up from our cabin) about 3:00 to refill the water bottles in the Horizon Court and got a cup of ice cream and cookies.
This evening was the first of the formal nights in the dining room. We invited Kathy and Jim over to our cabin beforehand because we had gotten a couple of bottles of wine prior to boarding the ship and this seemed like a good opportunity to have some. Then we all went down in our fancy outfits to the dining room. It’s almost impossible to avoid the cameramen taking posed pictures, so we had some taken, but we will not need to decide about buying any until the end of the cruise.
We are sitting at a table for 6, so it is the Garvins, the Sieberts and a couple named Shirley and Richard (from North Carolina). On our Australian cruise often did not show up for dinner, so this is much more entertaining around the table. For dinner they were celebrating the 50
th anniversary of the cruise line and each course was focused on a different decade (or you could have the regular menu). We had a nice collection of appetizers and then we all had the Intermezzo (a sorbet) before our entrée. We all had the Beef Tournedos, except Jim who had the Filet of Turbot. We each had a dessert from the menu, but because it is our anniversary, we were also presented with a small chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and 4 candles on top – accompanied by the waiters singing to us – which we split with everyone at the table. Then Jim, Janet, and Kathy had a shot glass or Irish Cream liquor. It was a nice end to a good dinner.
After dinner we went to the Princess Theater for the evening show. The performer was a vocalist named Nathan Foley. We had been a little disappointed in the guy the night before. Tonight’s entertainer was an Australian who provided a high-energy singing performance. There were songs from many different eras and styles, but every one of them were performed well and showed as a very energetic performer. It was much better than the previous night.
This evening everyone sets the clocks back an hour as Ketchikan is one more time zone to the west. Since the 9:30 Movies Under the Stars was “The Averngers”, David decided to go up and watch at least part of it. He thought it was going to be a movie based on the old British TV series, but it was a Marvel Cartoon spinoff, so he did not stay to watch it (guess it’s the wrong generation for him).
Back in Florissant, tomorrow morning will be the signup date for Janet’s Yoga class. If she does not act quickly there will be no openings in the class when she gets back into town. So she is going to attempt to register over the internet either after 10:00 this evening (if their website permits it) or soon after 4:00 tomorrow morning. That being the case, she will have a 3:45 wake-up call, will try to do her internet registration and probably return to bed afterwards. Stay tuned to tomorrow’s episode to see if Janet gets registered or if she is rejected (this is called a cliffhanger).
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