Welcome to the Chronicles of

At Sea
11/02/2006

0910 Well, we are headed north at 22 knots, with mostly cloudy skies, and calm seas. At the moment we are about due east of Miami. Today will probably be the last shorts and tee shirt day of the trip, as it is decidedly cooler than it was in the islands, although still quite nice. Here is the morning view: I must say, these morning views have been quite boring. They have all pretty much been a sky with some clouds, calm seas, and not a whole lot else. I suppose if I am going to have boring pictures on these pages, those are the pictures I want boring (knock on wood!). Our arrival into NYC is currently slated to be at 8:45am, which is a little later than I am used to on these trips. Thay will also make Mike & Calli's life a little easier, as they are coming to meet us on the dock. Not much easier, but you take what you can when you have to head out as early as they do to meet us. And don't the rest of you worry -- they have ulterior motives in the form of Carmine's (a fabulous family style restaurant on the west side)! You know, one thing I haven't talked about at all (okay, there are lots of things I haven't talked about that probably should be mentioned, but time constraints and publishing deadlines limit me! That's the story I am sticking to) is the towel animals that we have been getting. Veteran cruisers know that nightly, your cabin steward comes into the room, and turns down the bed, puts a chocolate on your pillow, and makes a towel animal. We have had a frog, lobster, a swan, an elephant, a rabbit, and last night, my personal favorite, a monkey. Here is a picture of the monkey and the rabbit: There are so many details and small experiences on a cruise, that it is impossible to remember them all when I am typing these dispatches. And it is in those thousands of moments that make cruising so fabulous. And you get to meet so many people, and they will say hello to you in the passageways or comment on the costume you wore the previous day, but you didn't know they saw you, or the cabin steward who sees you in the hall, and calls you "Mr. Peter" because you told him that your name was Peter, and not Mr. Toro (Saiful - the cabin steward - is absolutely wonderful - I feel a little bad when he asks how the day was, and we just came back from a day of snorkeling and sailing, and you know this guy doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of getting out to see the tropical island you just spent all day in because he was cleaning your room!). For those of you who haven't gone on a cruise, you should try it. It is simply an amazing experience, and a total escape from the everyday world. You can be as busy or quiet as you like. Participate or grab a deckchair and read a book - its up to you. I know we converted Linda, although that wasn't all that hard, since she wanted to go before she signed up for this little outing. Anyway, I digress. I mentioned the pictures that we got from Sharon, owner of the Winifred, the sailboat we took out of St Thomas the other day. Here are the pictures she sent me. Obviously, my favorite shot is the fish shot. That fish isn't 1/2" longer than it was in that picture, because it got eaten. But you can't tell from the picture! Sharon couldn't have framed that shot better if she had tried! Now, I am still working on the pictures of us in costume. We were looking a them last night on the way to the show after dinner, but the guy who shot them wanted me to see the picture he did that had a bit of digital artwork done, but for some reason wasn't with the others. So, I told him I would hold off buying any until today so I could see what he had done. He seemed really proud of whatever it was that he did. He was the same guy whose battery I had charged earlier on the week, so we're friends, and he seems to want to go that extra mile for me. He has no idea what I do for a living, nor the fact that I m not blown away by every Photoshop trick in the book, but I do want to be nice to him, so Torre, you'll have to wait a little for those pix. Sorry! They did come out pretty good. Well, I am going to sign off now. We'll talk to you later. Think warm thoughts for our arrival Saturday. And, as always, Keep Smiling!!! 2318 What a nice day. Did I ever tell you guys about the art auction or the auctioneers on this trip? Ah, the stories! But first, the day was gorgeous, and we went out to see the ice carving demonstration by the pool. These guys can carve ice. They don't use chain saws, which is the usual way to make a sculpture (basically because they are carving ice on a moving ship, and they like to keep all limbs intact). They use hand tools. And there was a chalenge - 80F and sun - the water was flowing off these blocks of ice. And yet, they still got 2 sculptures done! Its a parrot! After lunch, we headed over to the art auction. This is the third art auction of the trip, and we were at all three (although the second one we walked out of because it conflicted with dinner - and we have our priorities, after all!). There are 2 auctioneers onboard, Adam, who is from Austrailia, and Chris, who is from, of all places, New Haven, CT. His family is actually from Springfield. We had a really good time with these guys. Anyway, there is a Peter Max that we were looking at - they gave us a good price (as in, you can't enter a price into their computer $1 lower than the price they gave us - we even tried!) We were hemming and hawing over it, and today too it. We ended up getting an original Pollak, too! With luck, the unveiling will be around the holidays! Here we are with our newest aquisition, and our newest best friends (they send cosmos over after we bought the picure during the auction!). Tonite was also the last formal night - hence the tux in the last pic. They also did flaming baked alaska for dessert (and champagne). Here is our waiter bringon the goodies! When we got back to our room tonite, we had a new towel animal waiting for us - tapping his toes, wondering where we were! Now, here is a sure sign of the rapid approach of the end of the cruise - you know how you guys changed your clocks last weekend? We didn't. We arrived in the Caribbean perfectly in synch with the islands. Tonight, we get to kick the clocks back one hour. This means we get an extra hour's worth of sleep (something I can definitely use!), but it puts us back in synch with NYC, something none of us is quite ready to face yet. Oh well, all good things must come to an end, right? But WHY???? Tomorrow morning, we are getting together in one of the bars so the girls can look at the web pages and see what lies I have been telling about them. We are also planning on compiling a list of most memorable moments or stories of the trip. Check back in for that! I have no idea what will make that list. I just heard the first thunder I have heard all trip. The sky looks like a fireworks show. Should be a fun night rocking and rolling. Its amazing how loud the thunder gets! Oh yeah, for Torrie! Enjoy! Keep Smiling!!! Your Intrepid Servant, the Timethief Beachbum

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