June 27 - Last Day at Sea

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Just a few weeks ago we were leaving home and starting an amazing cruise vacation. Unfortunately, today we are packing our bags and preparing for the end of our vacation. The Island Princess is headed for Southhampton England, where we will leave the ship and fly back home tomorrow.

Today we went to the dining room for Janet to have one more breakfast of Eggs Benedict. We have skipped telling you that she has found chocolate croissants are very good and has one almost every morning, even upstairs in the Horizon Court. David has been having blueberry muffins most morning, and today he had ham and eggs to go with it.

Today is also the last day for Janet to mingle with her new stitching friends. Today they had a group "show and share" where everyone brought all the projects they have been working on and show off their accomplishments. Janet got to show her two scarves and her intricate stitching project. Others had all sorts of different accomplishments, ranging from knitted garments to a cross-stitched tablecloth. This cruise has been especially successful with a good group of people who regularly got together, and who really enjoyed spending time together.

David worked on the packing for a while and then went up to the lounge to read his book some more. The trick to packing is to get everything in the suitcases which comply with the airline weight rules. But also, we must leave enough unpacked so we have what we need for tonight and tomorrow morning that will still fit in the roller bag and backpack which we will carry off the ship tomorrow morning. It's a complex juggling game.

David also had to get change from the Customer Service so we will be able to give tips to our servers this evening and tomorrow. He turned in 3 paperbacks to the library which he has finished on the cruise. They have a couple of cabinets labeled "book exchange" where people leave finished books and take a new one to read. Today the cabinets were very full as people must have been unloading books instead of packing them in their luggage.

Janet ordered some drinks to be delivered to the cabin, including another one of the fancy coffees. David went up to the Grill to bring down a hot dog and a cheeseburger. We mostly spent the afternoon in the cabin, not doing a bunch of noteworthy events, but just resting and waiting for the next meal. We did sail past a few drilling platforms today, and a field of windmills out here in the North Sea. Finally, it was time to eat again. Sometimes we refer to the last cruise dinner as "the last supper". We had some delicious appetizers, followed by a prime rib and baked potato dinner. For dessert we each had deep dish apple pie a la mode.

The dining room staff finished the meal with the traditional parade of the junior waiters carrying plates of Baked Alaska around the dining room, with applause from all the diners. Then we took a picture of our servers and headed back to the cabin to put the luggage out into the in the hall. A little later in the evening, we sailed past the "white cliffs of Dover". David took a couple of pictures - hope they worked.

We have enjoyed the cruise, but we are happy to be going home tomorrow. We have booked a cruise for next year, so we will have that to look forward to, but for now we are ready to go back to "normal life". We hope all goes according to plan tomorrow, including the very long flight back from Heathrow to Chicago and connecting on to St Louis late at night.

We will have a 5:30 alarm to be able to get dressed and then a quick breakfast. So that is all. Good night.

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