IRVING BERLIN

January 15, 2019

Nothing but blue skies from now on.  At least in the Caribbean until hurricane season starts in late summer.  It was a beautiful day on St. Maarten.  The temperature was not too hot.  There was a gentle breeze blowing over the beach.  But the water was a tad bit cold.  We waded into it incrementally.  Inches of body slowly being submerged.  Inch by inch.  Step by step.  And then Bonnie lost her balance and a gentleman came to our rescue.  With the sand slipping under her feet it was hard for her to get purchase and I couldn’t balance her enough.  Our good Samaritan helped a lot.  I think his name is Dirk.

We rented two beach chairs with a large umbrella, and put our stuff out while we went in the water.  Five drinks came with the rental, but we only picked up 4 – two cokes and two waters.  The haggling started as soon as we approached the beach.  Hey, Mister!  First price, Mister!  Not last price!  What’s your price?  Or something like that.  $35.  Nope, I’ll give you $25.  No, I’ll do it for $30, and we walked away.  The next guy, farther down the beach, agreed to $25.  It was a lot of fun and we both agreed – next time, we bring books.  Two hours of standing or swimming or searching for seas shells is boring.  Bring on the books!  Mom did find a nice prize.  I will let her tell you about it.

We went to supper tonight with Eric and Barbie, the dance couple.  They are from California, and haven’t been sailing with Carnival for too long.  It was an enjoyable, two hour dinner, and then Mom zoomed up to the Lido Deck to stake out two chairs for the evening movie, “Oceans Eight,” while I went back to our room to get our airline blankets.  We did not need them tonight.  The movie was good.  The popcorn was nothing extra.  But enough salt and it picked up (the popcorn, not the movie).

Eric and Barbie are in the room next to ours and one of the things we talked about was the noise nightly that starts overhead around 10:30 or 11 and carries on until midnight.  They allowed as how it is the Red Frog Bar closing down for the night, moving furniture and cleaning the floor.  A couple of nights the patrons must have been very messy because the furniture was being moved and dropped until after 2, until 3:30 one morning.  Fortunately it is not a continual symphony, just a couple of jingles here and there.

Okay.  Time to turn the keyboard over to Mom, Granny, and Bonnie.

TTFN

Now I know why I don’t go to the beach. I put lotion on my back and shoulders because I didn’t want to get sun burned. I really didn’t think it was that hot but tonight when I got back to the room my chest was prickly like I had a rash and I got sun burned on the front under my chin down to where my top was today. OUCH! Next time I will lather all over my body!!

Well, the water was nice and I found lots of nice shells. And when I was walking from our chairs back into the water I saw what looked like a blue bead in the sand. I reached down and picked it up and found it was a really nice bracelet. Who knows how long it had been there but it now on my arm. Very pretty. Yeah me. Sad for someone!!

We were back on board about 12, so we both had a shower. Then I hung up our bathing suits and we got dressed and headed to the lido deck were  we had a salad for lunch and then came back to the room for a nap. He napped I didn’t. I have started on my second set of post cards to be mailed in San Juan tomorrow. Then, we are back on board at 2:30 and he has his repeat of the Astronomy talk at 5. So tomorrow it will be a late supper.

The next day we will be in Grand Turk. We have been there one time but I remember nothing about it. Maybe I will remember when we get there.

There was no entertainment in the theater tonight and the only going on is at 11 in the Butterfly lounge. It is the Quest game. Which is an adult rated type of scavenger hunt. You don’t leave the room. You have to come up with whatever they want from what is in your bags or on you. We don’t ever go to this. It is R or X rated.

Well, whatever is making the noise above us is really banging tonight.

The movie was good. I would like to have stayed for the mission Impossible Fallout but it would over to late for us. We get to San Juan at 7:15 tomorrow. Oh I forgot to tell you, there were 5 ships in port today. There was an MSC, a P&O, a NCL ( the Norwegian Dawn  which was the first ship Dad ever did a talk on) and a Disney ship, Wonder . There were probably about 15,000 people here. Crazy. But it really didn’t seem all that crowded. There was plenty of room at the beach. I guess a lot of people were on excursions.

Well, after our naps, I decided to watch the sail away. All on board was at 4:30. So at 3:45 I was up on deck 3 watching everyone come back. There were probably 30 or more guests who were 10 minutes or so late. But there were 2 crew that were the last two and they were waiting on them to arrive so we could leave. Oh boy they will be in trouble. It was two girls. Well, every body was finally on board and we were the 3rd ship to set sail at just before 5. The NCL left about 3:45 and Disney left about 4. Dad had come up about 4:30 and we stood until we left the dock. Then, off to meet the dance couple and supper. I had spring rolls for an appetizer and veal Parmesan for an entree. It was apple pie for dessert. I actually cleaned my plate this evening.

Well, I have finished my post cards and I still have my pills to take and to brush my teeth.
So goodnight for now.

Love you all.
Mom, Granny and Bonnie