Sailing on the Sea Day

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We lost an hour as we began our journey east towards Bonaire, one of the A-B-C islands… can you guess which one? All are part of the Dutch Antilles. Being a sea-day we opted for breakfast in the Vista Dining Room, a switch from our more hurried Lido routine. Mother decided to try the stone-cut Irish oatmeal, Sharon had her American breakfast and I opted for the muesli with bananas and a frittata with sausage and potato cake. Mother gave the thumbs up for her hot cereal. We were joined by a very nice couple who told us how they had surprised her sister by booking passage on this cruise, which she had previously booked. She did know they were coming until they showed up at the dinner table. And she also surprised her husband by telling his best friend about the cruise, and they came and surprised him during the life boat drill.

Sudoku after breakfast. Still observing heightened health protocols. Better safe than sorry. Today’s puzzle was the NY Times #8 puzzle, so I’m sure we’ve done it before. Last year in Alaska I believe we started with #1 and counted forward. I’m sure Sharon will use that as an excuse for me beating her on both the Easy and Hard. My mom joined us and completed the first puzzle all by herself.

Mom and Sharon went to the casino I returned to our cabin to work a bit on yesterday’s blog. Sharon returned shortly, beaming that Fisherman Bob had been good to her and she’d won $40. Mom had lost about $20 but did well on her second $20 and said she had fun. The three of us went up to the Lido for lunch. Mother had eyed the lasagna I’d had the day before and had asked for that. I told her they don’t make that every day, and she settled on the lamb entre. I came back and asked her if she’d like to try the baked ziti, and told her it looks a lot like the lasagna from the day before, so she chose that instead. We both enjoyed that dish, and then I also had some California Roll sushi and fried tempura (sushi). Sharon, again being contrary, opted for her first Burger at the Dive-In this cruise.

Sharon and I went up the Crow’s Nest and found our same side table and alcove booth on the port side. Jim and Dawn soon joined us and said they’d invited a couple others to join us. I’m not sure how they knew that Barney and Gayle wouldn’t show up, or what would happen if they did… I’m just saying… I thought we were a team. Anyway, our Canadian teammates got ditched for a couple of other Americans. Simon asked us which of the two sets of questions we wanted to do… the hard ones, or the really hard ones. We had the Cruise Director ask us this on a previous cruise, and the following day he would say, those other questions you didn’t want yesterday, well, we’re doing them today. He also said that someone had complained to the host of Pub Trivia at night with Show Host Kass that his questions were too hard. He noted, that the winners (that would be us) had gotten 18 out of 20 points. He also noted that if anybody has any complaints about his trivia, they should come to him and complain, and certainly not someone who works for him, because they’ll just come and tell him anyway. All but one of the questions he came up with, which he says that he gets from the internet, seemed more like they came from a pool of previous questions on Holland American cruises. There was the token geography question: What is the southernmost state? The cooking question: How many teaspoons in a tablespoon? The literature question: What is the first word uttered in Citizen Kane? The mythology question, but I give Simon credit for switching to Egyptian mythology: Who is the sun god in Egyptian mythology? The math question: What number system uses only one’s and zero’s? The sports question: Who was the heavyweight boxing champion from 1937 to 1949? The classic movie question: Who was the ghost in “It’s a Wonderful Life”? The oft asked drinking question: What is gin made from? And from the useless information category, except if you play Team Trivia with Simon, “ By what name was William Claude Dukenfield better known?” I trust that you all knew Hawaii, 3 teaspoons, Rosebud, Ra, binary, Joe Louis, Clarence and juniper berries. This last one stumped us. Sharon suggested John Wayne. I had heard how “The Duke” had gotten his nickname and thought it had something to do with sports; but, I couldn’t come up with anything better. The winner’s, who didn’t miss any questions, worked it out, so maybe we should have tried a little harder. Check out that name again: W-illiam C-laude duken-FIELD. Hope not to miss this one again. Simon noted that it was his birthday tomorrow and that he’d be on the gangway and asked us to give him a big ‘virtual hug’ as we walked by to make him feel loved, because after all, he just boarded this ship on Monday with us so he doesn’t have any friends (only people who complain about him behind his back). During trivia Simon had asked one we’d heard several times in the last two years, the ever popular vocabulary/nature question: What type of tree loses its leaves in the fall? During the answers he articulated clearly “Deciduous” and let us know that he likes that word. He promised to use it at the show that evening if we would all cheer when he did so, to make everyone wonder what is going on. We eagerly agreed to give him some love.

We all went to Family Photo $5,000 jackpot bingo early and got a forward couch and tables for the three of us. Sharon said it was my turn to buy the tickets. We took a picture of the three of us on Sharon’s cell phone, to qualify us for a family photo and an extra chance each on the blackout round. The Show Host Kass runs the bingo and complains about not having any friends. Do I sense a pattern here? For the first time I can remember, the first game was not your standard bingo… it was instead the four corners game. Only B’s and O’s were called, and someone had the nerve to call bingo after just four numbers were called. Cass requested that we give a “Royal Wave” when you are just one number away, rather than standing up because the ship was moving a bbit. The second game was the floating postage stamp, not using the FREE SPACE. This game took a little longer, but none of us came close before the woman next to my mother started giving that “Royal Wave”. I saw that all she needed was “B-2”. Three calls later she called “Bingo”. The third game on the green card was the B-O game, one card with all of the B’s and all of the O’s. So again, there would be no FREE SPACE in play! I thought we were doing pretty well before people started to do that Royal Wave. We never even got to do that! For the jackpot game (you need to get bingo before they call the 47^th number) we got to use our bonus family photo square. Alas, that didn’t help.

We dressed for the gala dinner and got to the Vista Dining Room just as they began seating people. There were just a few couples ahead of us. We were seated at a table for six at the rear by the window. We were joined by Bonnie and Barry, and a woman travelling alone rounded out our dinner party. I enjoyed the escargot and thoroughly enjoyed the artichoke and carrot soup. The soup was served as the night before, with some crème fraiche and diced onion greens in the bowl, and the soup was poured over it from a sealed pouring pot. Mother’s Asian chicken noodle soup was served in a similar matter but she had to use her it was only “ok” for it. This is no doubt a serving technique they’ve adopted to serve the soup hot (or it is part of the anti-Norovirus practices). Whatever, I like it. Sharon skipped the appetizer and went straight for the peppered sirloin with grilled shrimp. One guess who got the grilled shrimp. It went well with my stuffed cannelloni, which was excellent. Mother went with the rack of lamb, so perhaps it was good that she had the pasta for lunch. Sharon and I went with the chocolate soufflé with chocolate ganache. My mom chose the no-sugar added chocolate cake.



After dinner Sharon stopped in the casino, and I went back to the cabin and dropped my mother off in her cabin. I did some more work on the blog. It wasn’t long before Sharon came back, beaming that she’d won the $100 progressive jackpot on her Fishing With Bob slot machine. We picked up Mom and went to the ensemble show with the Holland America Dancers and Singers. They gave a lively performance that we all enjoyed. Unfortunately, as he explained the next morning during Team Trivia, he had a brain-fart and forgot to include “Deciduous” while addressing the audience. He promised to do it when he’s next on stage for the 8:00 and 10:00 PM shows in two days. We went back to the cabin and decided to call it a night.

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