SEE YA OPHELIA

October 10, 2017

Captain Darren told us at sail away this afternoon that there is a tropical depression in the South Atlantic named Ophelia.  She is in that part of the ocean where hurricanes form, and so he has altered his original course to Fort Lauderdale, taking us on the northerly Great Circle Route.  After a couple of days we will have passed Ophelia and will then take a more southerly route to port.  Nothing but blue skies and calm seas, O Lord, let it be.

Men have the reputation of not asking for directions.  Outside of Augusta, I did not think my beloved wife could find her way around town.  But she surprised me today.  I applauded with sincerity.  Yesterday while riding the Big Yellow Bus we passed an embroidery shop and today she said she wanted to walk to it.  I figured we were in for a hike to no where, and all at once, there it was – the embroidery store!  And what beautiful pieces they had.  The pieces are all made by hand in homes scattered throughout the island.  They are not machine made items.  The factory is a museum where it shows the history and samples of some of the greatest embroidery creations available.  But the museum is closed, and even though we found it, we could not get in.  So we settled for two cones of gelato instead.

Bonnie said dinner tonight was slow.  From the time we sat down until the time we had finished our desserts (creme brulee for me) it was two hours.  I enjoyed the leisurely pace and the good dinner table conversation, but we did not make it to the 7:15 show on the World Stage (a comedy juggler).  So we went into the Billboard lounge and played a game of rummy and she demolished me in 6 hands and leads the Sea Series 4 games to 1.  Then we went to the show.  Not my favorite of the cruise, but he was definitely a talented performer. 

An annoying kid from the audience was picked to help with one of the tricks, and if he were mine, I’d tie a rope around his waist and drag him behind the ship until he learned to behave.  But his mother just smiled and shrugged her shoulders.  It made me cringe when I realized she had introduced her little urchin to me after my first talk and told me he likes pirates.  I am going to see the Entertainment Director tomorrow to see if I can switch to my Edible History series.  Just kidding.  Maybe.

Well, it is time to give Bon the keyboard for rebuttal.

TTFN

Well, I  slept to 5am and then went back to sleep till 7:15, (having taken two sleeping pills last night instead of one). Hopefully tonight I can sleep with none. The ship is rocking slightly and that is always good sleeping. The high tomorrow is only 68 and I am looking forward to that. Though today was very overcast and only about 72 most of the morning it was very nice outside.  We left the ship about 10 and rode the shuttle to town. Very nice ride about 10 minutes. When we got off the bus, we headed to the left and up the big hill.
We walked past a garden area we had visited on an early visit but the embroidery shop I thought I had seen was at the top of a big hill. About a 2 or 3 tenth mile walk straight up,
then we arrived and spent about 30 minutes looking at things, most way out of my price range, and I ended up buying a small linen hand towel with a embroidered pattern that showed about 6 of the different stitches. It cost 32 euros. Very expensive but quite beautiful. They have a web site and I want to look at it when I get home.

Then, we headed across the street and back down the hill and came to a garden called the Presidents Garden. There are actually 3 gardens in a row. This one cost 1 euro each to visit. The other 2 are free. But this was well worth the cost. Beautiful flowers, cages with parrots and canaries and a pond with large gold fish. It overlooked the ocean. We sent about 30 minutes or more looking and taking pictures. One of the large blue, yellow and green parrots was having his morning bath in a bowl of water sitting on the floor of the cage. I videoed him because it was quite fascinating. I will show you when I get home.

After leaving the park we walked on down and into the town looking for the embroidery factory. We stopped in several shops to look and make a few purchases. As we headed back to the shuttle we consumed our gelato cones as we walked. There were 6 cruise ships in dock today. There were people everywhere. But we enjoyed our walk. We walked a total of 3 miles today.

Supper was very SLOW! It took 45 minutes to get our first appetizer. We both had chicken cordon blue for supper. It was very tasty.

We had met the juggler earlier in the day as we got off the shuttle bus when we got back to the ship. He was waiting to get on and said “come to my show tonight”. Then, he showed us his shirt which showed a juggler. We said we would. It was a good show with a few bad jokes. But I could have done with out the annoying child (he really was an obnoxious kid and his mother seemed to think it was funny). 

David was napping and I decided to go up and see boarding and sail away at  3:30. Well, it was very interesting. First there was a tour that was late getting back, and some other straggler guests. So at 3:50 ( departure time was scheduled for 4) we were still tied up and the gangway was not pulled up.  That was when the Captain came on and said that finally all passengers were on board but we had to wait for someone who was disembarking. Strange. Well, I was standing along the rail and by 4:50 when the departing person was finally off and the gangway removed, we began our move. It appeared that the person leaving was a crew member, the security people carried his luggage ( 2 suitcase, 2 large duffle bags and a backpack) off. I saw him put his passport into the backpack. I don’t think this was a voluntary disembarking. We were almost an hour late in departing. That was costly I am sure.

Well, tomorrow is a sea day and a talk for Dad. I will get back to my crocheting. I was working on one of my projects this afternoon while he napped and had to tear out 3 rows because the pattern was misleading. I got one row back in but have 2 more to put back in before I can continue. Also, I will be walking after breakfast in the morning since we can have breakfast together tomorrow. 

Well, he says I am writing War and Peace again so I will say goodnight to all.

Love Mom Granny and Bonnie