LIFE ON A SHIP

 Days 1 & 2 of our life on a ship have been quiet and uneventful.  I am trying to get my “Sea Legs”…..

Yesterday the captain came on the loud speaker with this noon hour report:

“30 knots of wind, gusting to 40, equivalent to 35-45 mph/55-65 mph.  A mind-boggling 3500 metres (2.175 miles!) of water below our keel.  Sea conditions moderate to rough.”

Wow - he wasn’t kidding!  I never have gotten sea sick in my life until yesterday.  It wasn’t that bad, but did require me to take anti-motion medication.  I ended up spending most of my day in our stateroom sleeping or reading.  Actually, I enjoyed the quiet day by myself.  Not sure if it was the sea sickness or if the month of December finally caught up with me!  I feel 100% better today!

Blue skies and calm waters!  

Before we left for this adventure, many asked how we could handle being gone for so long?  My first response was that it is just like the snow birders, except that we will be on a ship instead of in Florida!

Now, I realize that there will be lots of things to keep us busy.  Mark has joined a Bridge Group (surprise) and has a lesson plus organized play every sea day.

There are lots of other organized events throughout the day to keep us busy too: Bible study, Book Club, Game Groups, Crafters, Enrichment Lectures, Exercise Groups, etc.  I had decided before we left home, that while on this journey, I was going to spend time studying about all the places we would be visiting so that I would appreciate the culture of that particular area better.  In the past, because a cruise vacation was simply that for me - a vacation - I just let things happen without too much thought!  I started on this promise to myself and attended a lecture this morning about the history of the habitat of Hawaii.  We learned about how the islands evolved and how the vegetation and animals appeared.  It was fascinating!  On Friday, there will be another lecture on Man’s Discovery of the Hawaiian Islands.  Timely, because we arrive in Hawaii on Saturday!  (Today’s noon report said that we are currently 715 miles from Los Angeles cruising toward Hawaii.)  Until then we are enjoying five Sea Days.  I’m actually looking forward to these sea days as a time to improve my blogging skills, read, get our state room organized, rest and reflect.  I just took a nap and have a massage scheduled on Thursday!

Here is a photo of where I am blogging this afternoon.  It is at the center of the ship around the pool. Beautiful sky overhead and toasty warm in here.  At 4 pm., I will be enjoying “High Tea” followed by dinner at one of the restaurants and then we are going to watch a show in the theatre featuring Rachel Tyler, a broadway performer. Plenty to keep us busy on these quiet days off!

The following photo was taken this afternoon from the balcony of our stateroom.  Beautiful rainbow and it’s not raining!

An adorable waiter just served me some Iced Coffee! YUM!  La Conviviance!!!

Yummo!