2016-04-17
Somewhere between Atlanta and Ft Lauderdale, the vacation land of the East coast.
Our flight left Hilo at 1 PM on Sunday. We arrived in Atlanta at 7 AM Monday. Poof. In less than 9 hours, we lost 6 hours. Red-eye flights just play havoc with me. I imagine coming over the pole when we return from Copenhagen will be a time warp indeed. Ah, but the adventures taken before the return trip is what this travel thing is all about.
Shortly after our return from Guatemala, we learned that we would be going on a month long cruise with John's brother and his wife. The itinerary is lazy to start with but picks up considerable speed after crossing the Atlantic. We begin in Ft Lauderdale later today with seven sea days. Like I said...lazy. Once we hit Europe we have a busy time.
2016-04-19
Sea Days...Lazy Days
For the uninitiated, sea days can be lazy days, boring days (I seriously don't remember the last time I was bored) or extremely busy days, depending upon the wishes of the guest. With exhaustion ruling our evening, our first night was an ETB (early to bed). Our great plans for making the exercise classes went to the compost bin, as we slept right past the 7 AM start time. The sleep was so needed. Tomorrow will be another day.
What might one do to waste time? Besides sleep and missing the exercise classes, there are lectures, gaming, entertainment and, naturally, eating and drinking. One lecture, on our first day out, was certainly one of the most lackluster I have ever walked out of. The subject was early navigational adventures, which would have been terrific had it not been delivered by one of the crew members of these same ancient voyages. Really, the fellow rambled, lost his train of of thought, was showing slides incongruent with his subject, and spoke with a monotone unlike any I've ever heard. Other special lecturer have been delivered with the excitement necessary to keep the guests engaged. Perhaps it's best to stick with team trivia or the culinary classes. And there is always wine tasting. Or cheese tasting...my Uncle Dean's favorite. Oh, what a friend we have in cheeses.
The late afternoons and evenings provide a different level of entertainment. Wine tasting with the ship's caller master, martini tasting, mixology classes and, for those who are struggling with alcohol or substance issues, Friends of Bill meets every night. Then there is the food. In abundance and very well prepared. We dine with Gene and Marilyn, John's brother and sister in law, and a friend of theirs from Michigan, at the early seating. We are fine with the early dinner as we are done before 7 PM, so have time to take in a show or two. Song and dance on the big stage, awesome blues musicians belting out from the BB King lounge, a bar with classical violin tunes, a discotheque and, of course, a casino. I think all of the cruise ships have casinos. And most of the time they are quite busy.
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Friday April 22. Full moon tonight!
We are on our fourth sea day, and are beginning to get into some Atlantic type seas. Yesterday was rollers up to 15 feet. Today, Friday, we are to have rollers up to 20 feet. Early coffee and off for a few miles on the promenade deck. The exercise class for abs is an every other day thing. One of the instructors is way too difficult on my shoulders - and they are not in the greatest of shape. So I go every other day to the instructor that really focuses on the abs. Off days are a 3-4 mile walk. The rolling and rocking of the ship just add an element of challenge. At least the sun is shining and our fellow passengers are happy.
Saturday April 23.
Ah, the clouds of the Atlantic prevented a viewing of what may have been a beautiful full moon. This morning we awakened to increased rocking, clouds and exterior decks wet with rain. This is more of what I expected but I am surprised at how mild the temperatures have been. The more hardy souls are still sporting Aloha shirts and walking shorts. I, on the other hand, am in jeans, t-shirt and a fleece and am bearing up with temps in the low 60s.
I'm afraid that this posting will be seriously lacking in the photo arena. Thus far, I've been pleased with my new Samsung Galaxy Tab S2. There is, however, one major issue - my iPhone, where the pictures reside, will not bluetooth connect to the tablet. Good old iPhone says its not compatible with the tablet. In order to move a photo from the phone to the tablet, I need to send it to a cloud with the phone and retrieve it from the cloud with the tablet. With our less than speedy, and rather spendy ship internet connections, I have yet been unsuccessful in getting a single photo to uploaded to the cloud (Dropbox is my favorite). Sorry, dear readers. As if the entries WITH photos aren't boring enough, there little chance an entry without the pictorial enhancements will be more intriguing.
I'm on a quest, to find an app that will allow me to transfer photos from my Steve Jobs possessed iPhone to my Google possessed Galaxy tablet. Now I know how to spend my time in an Internet Cafe once we find land (scheduled for Horta, Azores at 9 AM Monday morning).
Until later. And hopefully with some pictures.
