Another Sea Day

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The seas had worsened during the night and we experienced the gambit of pitch, roll and yaw in our forward berth. More than a couple times could we hear the sea crashing into the sides of our vessel, we would hear the bow plunging into the sea after a swell and then the white spray by our window. Occasionally the spray would hit our balcony and fourth deck window. Sharon made her way to mass. When she returned I was finishing up one blog entry and we went up to the Dining Room for breakfast. I felt like the eggs Benedict, again, and Sharon had her American Breakfast. I made a point to add the potato cakes with my plate; and, again the dining room steward corrected that to hashed browns. Two others at our table for six also ordered an American Breakfast. It’s interesting how theirs came with the country pan-fried hashed browns that Sharon likes; but, she wound up for potato cakes. I didn’t feel like suggesting that the possibility of my order had been taken for “our” order. Nobody else had specified any particular kind of potatoes!



We decided to checkout the Travel Trivia as suggested by Jim and Lucia, and we met up with Stewart and Vanne. Jim and Lucia never did show up, and we’re concerned that they may be bothered by the rougher seas. We’d taken the Hop-On-Hop-Off bus tour of Monte Carlo, so we knew that the country that is about one square mile in size is Monaco. And we’ve been to Alaska enough times to know what port you are in if you can see the Mendenthal Glacier. (That would be the capital of Alaska.) And we even knew which Canadian city never hosted an Olympic Games, given the choices of a) Calgary, b) Montreal, c) Toronto and d) Vancouver. That third one never did. We were stumped on a fifty-fifty, “Which city is farther north: Barcelona or Rome.” And we were just there, both places, twice! We were having trouble coming up with the name of the family that is the head of that first one square mile country, which allowed the team whose paper we were grading to change their answer from the Vatican to Monaco. I remembered that the name ended in “-ALDI” and Sharon said “Garibaldi”; but, that didn’t sound right, but we couldn’t do any better. It was close: “Grimaldi”. And we’d just taken that Hop-On-Hop-Off bus and listened to the whole tour and even gotten off at the Grimaldi Palace and everything, twice. And we missed what city first had one million inhabitants. And we were just there, too, twice! That would be Rome… We missed first by one point.



There was an 11 AM lecture on the Azores. There are nine major islands that comprise the Azores. They were first discovered by a Portuguese explorer; although, in all probability Portuguese fishermen probably were the first to see these islands. An early explorer brought sheep to the island to let them run free, to provide a source of food for future people coming to these islands. They were organized originally with a crown appointed administrator; but, the fiercely independent nature of the people who came to live here sought a more autonomous society, abolishing serfdom and well away from the Portuguese mainland enjoyed many more liberties than might be available to them there.



I didn’t feel like I needed lunch, and Sharon said she’d get a burger later, after trivia. We went up to the Crow’s Nest found the only available table in the corner behind the bar, and we did our Sudoku challenge there before anyone joined us. And I must say, today’s results were much more satisfying than the day before! Sharon might disagree. We spotted Vanne and called out, but she was trying to find a place to sit. Then I called out to Stewart, and they both came to join us. It really isn’t like Jim and Lucia to miss the Team Trivia. But today, it’s just the four of us. Stewart seemed sure that Buddy Holly died in a plane crash in 1958. I thought it was later than that, but couldn’t come up with the year. It turned out to be 1959. Vanne knew what kind of animal a tufted titmouse was. It’s a bird. We didn’t have a clue about what the name of the character was (first and last) played by John Travolta in “Saturday Night Live”. We now know that it is Tony Moreno. “What sign of the zodiac comes after Leo?” Who knows that? Well, Virgo wasn’t our guess, sadly to say. And I couldn’t come up with the name of the man who cofounded Microsoft with Bill Gates. The sheet whose answers we graded said Wosniak, and I knew it wasn’t him either. It was Paul Allen… I knew that I’d know it once I heard it. And our British couple came through like they’re supposed to for: “Where is the Star of Africa, the largest cut diamond in the world, kept?” The Tower of London is the answer! “What does China produce 12.25 million tons of each year, second most of all countries?” That would not be rice, or even steel as we thought. It would be beer! And we had no idea what board game was first called Criss-Cross. That would be Scrabble. I had to reach into my bag of tricks to come up with the country whose name translates as “The Land of the Free”. Okay, let me rephrase the question for those Americans out here who are too quick to answer: “What ‘Asian’ country’s name translates as ‘The Land of the Free’?” Not speaking any Asian languages I suggested the first one that I could think of with “land” in the name, and settled on “Thailand”. And wouldn’t you know, that was it! We finished in the middle of the pack with 18 out of 23 points. And we’d won the day before with 18 points!



We played bingo at 4 PM. Today’s $10,000 jackpot game is dedicated to HAL’s mariners, and one extra chance is offered free to each mariner star players have. Sharon and I both got 4 extra plays in the bonus jackpot game. Neither of us got to stand in the first regular bingo game. Due to the seas, the caller suggested that we just wave and catch his attention when we reach that coveted chance needing just one more call to win. The second game was a double-bingo, which I much prefer over the patented four-corners game that seemed designed to get bingo over with as soon as possible. I had several possibilities, needing just two calls, and finally, I got one of the numbers and signaled the caller. I wasn’t the first to catch his attention; but, it is fun to get close and have the thrill of needing just one more call. The ultimate thrill was not to be mine. The third game was a small picture frame. After the first free game on this cruise, where there were three false claims to bingo before Sharon won, there haven’t been any false or missed bingos since! Sharon got to within one on this third game; but, someone called bingo! I had a really good card in the blackout game, playing the three-pack plus four additional mariner-point chances. I needed just six numbers with eleven numbers yet to call before reaching the cutoff limit for the $10,000 limit. Unfortunately, it was fifteen calls later before that was down to needing just five numbers. I got down to needing just one number when one of the many people who had signaled that they needed just one number called “Bingo”!



Tonight is the second gala night so Sharon and I needed to get dressed up for the second straight night. I had the escargot. The jumbo shrimp looked good; but, I had the artichoke and carrot cream soup. Sharon had the pepper steak and grilled shrimp (okay, the grilled shrimp was really for me). I had the ricotta stuffed shells in a tasty marinara sauce. And we both enjoyed the chocolate soufflés with chocolate sauce.



We were considering going to see the Show; but, chose instead to retire to our cabin. The seas were becoming very rough, and it was not the easiest walk out of the dining room.

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