10-10-10 Day Two - My Dad’s birthday - he would have been 103 years old today.
The temperature was in the 70’s, sunny but windy.
We lost one hour last night. I was hungry but Jalil wanted to go to the gym before eating so we decided to meet later. After exercising he liked the little pool with a cloth roof. There he did some more exercising.
Had my savory food and then returned for some sweets. I left my teacup and told the waiter not to remove it. When I returned I could not find my cup on an empty table so I asked the waiter what happened. He pointed to a table but there was a man sitting there now. He told the man that it was my table and he jumped up to leave. “But you might become friends, if you stay.” The man was not interested! I went on a discovery tour all around the ship. A lot of people were lying on lounge chairs, sleeping or reading, in bathing suits - baking.
I found the Promenade Deck - the 7th deck where the floor is wooden and you can walk around and around for exercise. Three laps make a mile.
Jalil liked to watch the water behind the ship.
This was a sea day meaning we were not getting off the ship for exploration of a new place. On these days there were one or two lectures, usually very interesting. This time the topic was sea life by Ray Rychnovsky - an engineer who won prices for his photography and wrote fishing books. Here are a few of his tidbits:
Tuna weighs 287 lbs and take a long time to catch; sailfish have a big sail (fin) on the back which makes him swim very fast; a marlin weighs 450-600 lbs and is quite common; the wahoo (ono) has sharp teeth that can cut through the bone of your leg; sheepshead is a bottom feeder that can change from female to male; the giant octopus can clamp down on a person and drown him, squirts out a cloud of the same color as it is to confuse the hunter, so that it can escape; a white shark weighs 5,000 lbs. The pelican was almost extinct due to DDT but is now very common. The frigate has the largest wing span in the world - 90 inches. The orca = killer whale is the biggest dolphin - 30 ft long. The dorsal fin is 6 ft high and it swims at 35 miles per hour. The leatherback turtle weighs 1000 lbs. The temperature of the sand where it lays its eggs determines the sex of the turtle. The sperm whale dives 1.5 mile and can stay under water for 90 minutes at a time. The humpback whale - a baleen feeder - swims from Alaska to Cabo, Mexico or Hawaii to calf in the winter. The blue whale is the largest animal - to 420,000 lbs and 100 ft long. All 2,000 passengers on the ship equals one blue whale!
Jalil joined me for the lecture and afterwards we found lounge chairs to sit in the sun. Cirque de Soleil was shown on the large outdoor screen. It was hard to see in the sunlight and Jalil soon got restless and left to have a shower to meet me later for Afternoon Tea at 3.30 PM. We had a choice to sit with others or by ourselves. We shared our table with an older, skinny woman from Australia and her friend from Ireland. She looked as different from me as possible. She had numerous bracelets on each arm and a ring on seven of her fingers and an enormous amount of make up. She was soo delightful and we had a great time while Jalil enjoyed talking to the gray haired, handsome Irish man. They were so impressed by how nice people were in San Francisco and the service at Macy’s. And they saw a woman trying to trick the conductor on a cable car with a phony pass. The cable car was stopped and the woman told to get off, which she did. The couple was very impressed. Alyce also told me about her travels and her kids. She was not “keen on her son-in-law” but her son was married to a very clever and beautiful woman from Thailand. Jalil announced that he had forgotten to bring a tie for the formal dinners. He said that he was going to buy a Princess one. Alyce was horrified. (Luckily, there was no Princess tie for sale so he bought a purple one.) We saw them many times walking, holding hands or dancing beautifully together. Wish I could dance like that. We never talked to them again but they always gave us a wonderful smile.
The sea sickness was almost gone but it was lurking just under the surface so I took another meclizine. I feel it more indoors than outdoors. And the ocean is soo calm! There is some bad weather building up but I won’t worry about until I need to.
Jalil was watching the Giant’s baseball play-off game on Spanish TV and he knows no Spanish! He was quite tense.
The temperature was in the 70’s, sunny but windy.
We lost one hour last night. I was hungry but Jalil wanted to go to the gym before eating so we decided to meet later. After exercising he liked the little pool with a cloth roof. There he did some more exercising.
Had my savory food and then returned for some sweets. I left my teacup and told the waiter not to remove it. When I returned I could not find my cup on an empty table so I asked the waiter what happened. He pointed to a table but there was a man sitting there now. He told the man that it was my table and he jumped up to leave. “But you might become friends, if you stay.” The man was not interested! I went on a discovery tour all around the ship. A lot of people were lying on lounge chairs, sleeping or reading, in bathing suits - baking.
I found the Promenade Deck - the 7th deck where the floor is wooden and you can walk around and around for exercise. Three laps make a mile.
Jalil liked to watch the water behind the ship.This was a sea day meaning we were not getting off the ship for exploration of a new place. On these days there were one or two lectures, usually very interesting. This time the topic was sea life by Ray Rychnovsky - an engineer who won prices for his photography and wrote fishing books. Here are a few of his tidbits:
Tuna weighs 287 lbs and take a long time to catch; sailfish have a big sail (fin) on the back which makes him swim very fast; a marlin weighs 450-600 lbs and is quite common; the wahoo (ono) has sharp teeth that can cut through the bone of your leg; sheepshead is a bottom feeder that can change from female to male; the giant octopus can clamp down on a person and drown him, squirts out a cloud of the same color as it is to confuse the hunter, so that it can escape; a white shark weighs 5,000 lbs. The pelican was almost extinct due to DDT but is now very common. The frigate has the largest wing span in the world - 90 inches. The orca = killer whale is the biggest dolphin - 30 ft long. The dorsal fin is 6 ft high and it swims at 35 miles per hour. The leatherback turtle weighs 1000 lbs. The temperature of the sand where it lays its eggs determines the sex of the turtle. The sperm whale dives 1.5 mile and can stay under water for 90 minutes at a time. The humpback whale - a baleen feeder - swims from Alaska to Cabo, Mexico or Hawaii to calf in the winter. The blue whale is the largest animal - to 420,000 lbs and 100 ft long. All 2,000 passengers on the ship equals one blue whale!
Jalil joined me for the lecture and afterwards we found lounge chairs to sit in the sun. Cirque de Soleil was shown on the large outdoor screen. It was hard to see in the sunlight and Jalil soon got restless and left to have a shower to meet me later for Afternoon Tea at 3.30 PM. We had a choice to sit with others or by ourselves. We shared our table with an older, skinny woman from Australia and her friend from Ireland. She looked as different from me as possible. She had numerous bracelets on each arm and a ring on seven of her fingers and an enormous amount of make up. She was soo delightful and we had a great time while Jalil enjoyed talking to the gray haired, handsome Irish man. They were so impressed by how nice people were in San Francisco and the service at Macy’s. And they saw a woman trying to trick the conductor on a cable car with a phony pass. The cable car was stopped and the woman told to get off, which she did. The couple was very impressed. Alyce also told me about her travels and her kids. She was not “keen on her son-in-law” but her son was married to a very clever and beautiful woman from Thailand. Jalil announced that he had forgotten to bring a tie for the formal dinners. He said that he was going to buy a Princess one. Alyce was horrified. (Luckily, there was no Princess tie for sale so he bought a purple one.) We saw them many times walking, holding hands or dancing beautifully together. Wish I could dance like that. We never talked to them again but they always gave us a wonderful smile.
The sea sickness was almost gone but it was lurking just under the surface so I took another meclizine. I feel it more indoors than outdoors. And the ocean is soo calm! There is some bad weather building up but I won’t worry about until I need to.
Jalil was watching the Giant’s baseball play-off game on Spanish TV and he knows no Spanish! He was quite tense.
The Atrium
You always have the possibility to eat on the 14th deck in the Horizon Cafeteria which is open 24 hours a day where you may wear shorts, if you want to. This evening we had our first formal dinner when we were expected to dress up to eat in the dining room. Before dinner there was a hoopla with a pyramid of champagne glasses which were filled gradually. You could help with the pouring and have your picture taken by the ship’s many photographers. We did not do that. Dressed up people were watching on many floors looking down into the Atrium. It was quite festive. A group of
musicians were playing classical music.Afterwards we had dinner in the Rigoletto dining room. We landed next to three couples from Scotland. 1,194 of the 1,950 passengers were from the United Kingdom. The conversation was stiff at first. Jalil was proactive and asked smart questions. He has really changed. He had a difficult time talking to strangers when I first met him. The man next to me was quite talkative telling me how he travels with his caravan (trailer) all over Scotland. Lately, they had started taking cruises after meeting some young people in Egypt and realized how much these people had already traveled and how little he and his wife had seen so far. They were retired now like most people on the ship. We were quite involved in our conversation and the photographer tried to take our picture a few times. “No, my husband is on the other side.” Jalil was talking to the woman on his right. At one point the discussion was about the BP explosion in the Gulf. Jalil’s neighbor stated that people in the UK did not think it was a big deal. It was Obama who had blown it out of proportion for publicity! “No way!” I protested and that was the end of that topic. The dinner was delicious - crab quiche, cold yogurt tamarind soup, beef medallions and a flaky, incorrectly described, pear in a pastry (the pear was miniscule).
Every evening there were two shows on two stages, which were repeated again at 10:30 PM. We chose the comedian. On our Alaska cruise we saw a comedian who was so funny that I still remember it but, of course, I do not remember his name. I was looking for him throughout the whole cruise. I sat through at least four comedians who were not funny at all. This one was not funny when we could understand him (Scottish).
I was very aware when there was some strange movement or sound in the ship and wondered aloud what that could be. A Scottish man suggested that this was because I live in earthquake country. Maybe.
Annsofi, you're one great photographer.
ReplyDeletePictures are awsome, I can't wait to see you so you could tell us about your trip seems like madam and mossio had a blast.
Welcome back,
Cheers.