STAR GAZING

November 9, 2019


And once again, Happy Birthday Jennifer Darlyn!

Jim McParland, the other guest presenter, did a talk a couple of days ago on navigating the night sky, and he invited everyone up to Deck 14 to do some star gazing and constellation searching.  We forgot the first night, were tired the second night, but made it up tonight.  And wouldn’t you know it – it is a cloud night and the stars were hiding behind all of that white fluff.  The moon was playing hide and seek also, but Mom got some good pictures of it.  We’ll show you when we get home.

I think I’ve blogged this before, but both Jim and I have tomorrow off because there is a fleet captain on board who is doing a couple of special talks.  He did his first one at 4 a couple afternoons ago – I’m on at 2 and Jim at 3.  But tomorrow he is taking the 2-4 time slot to talk about the history of Holland America and do a question and answer session.  I am looking forward to the talk, not sure yet about the Q&A, but time will tell (and what is time to a hog?).

The second and last formal night for this cruise is tomorrow night.  And that always means it’s just a few days until we come back to land.  It’s always nice to get home, but sad to leave the ship.  This one will wrap up 2019 for your favorite cruisers, unless a last minute one pops up after Thanksgiving and before Christmas.  We have three booked for next year so far, and I’m going to talk to HAL about an Atlantic crossing and a round trip out of San Diego that does some Pacific stuff.  Fingers crossed here (and it makes it difficult to type like that).

I told my “Russian Fisherman” joke today (his eye was this big) and it brought back memories of good times in Samara.  Pastor Vladimir Chemirev – three of our readers will remember him – told me that story and laughed the whole way through it.  The punch line needed no translation.

Well, since I don’t have a talk to rehearse for tomorrow, I think I will play hearts on my phone while Bonnie blogs.

TTFN

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!! Jennifer!!!!!! I’d do smiley faces if I had any but I will just have to do some stars************!!!

Well, I was awake at 5:30 and couldn’t go back to sleep and played on my phone. He got up about 7 so we got ready to go to breakfast. For some unknown reason my nose has a case of itchy!! I mean ITCHY!! I tried putting some of my cream on but it didn’t help so when I got back from my walk I put on some of his. It seemed to help some. Don’t know what is wrong but I could play the part of Rudolph in the Christmas story!  Oh well.

After breakfast I went for my walk. As I did my 3 times around the promenade it rained on me. It was a real light rain and only got on you in certain spots. So I finished my walk. It is funny the way I keep track of how many times I have gone around. In the front of the ship in a protected areas there are two plots of grass set out in wooden frames. Why you ask? Well, dogs on board have to poop somewhere. There are two that I have seen on the cruise. One couple where the man’s vision is impaired and his wife appears to be blind have a dog and then there is an older man who has one just because. Well, I finished my walk and then, went back to the room to get my stuff and head to deck three.

David joined me about 11 and we played cards, I am losing again. There was another rainbow while we were sitting there. They are really pretty. Well, we had decided for lunch we would go to the deli on 10 and have a pizza. But the wait time was going to be 45 minutes and he didn’t have enough time before his talk so we went back to the buffet. I was looking at the sandwiches that were already made. They also will make one with what you want. A lady had asked if they had the makings of a Ruben, but they don’t (that you have to get at the deli on 10).  The worker started naming the kind of sandwiches she could make and she said egg salad. David was near by and I told him they had egg salad. He was elated and ordered one. I got a ham and cheese with lettuce, tomato and pickles. He didn’t have a lot of time so when he finished he left. I stayed and finished mine before going back to the room.

I left before he did to go to the theater. There was a short talk supposed to be going on before his and I wanted to be sure to get a seat and save one for him for after his talk. His talk was good and Jim’s was good. After both talks we headed to the room. I rested for a few minutes and then got dressed. Tonight was orange night so I wore my wild colored pants and my orange shirt.

Supper was 2 salads. Appetizer: Caesar salad, no anchovies; Entre a Yucatan salad with chicken, lettuce, tomatoes, avocado(don’t eat that) cucumbers(don’t eat that)and a lime vinegarette dressing. It had oranges slices and tortilla strips, too. It was quite tasty after I removed the undesirable stuff. Then a chocolate mousse for dessert.

Then, off to the show. It was a repeat of the comedienne. He was good again. After the show we went up to deck 14 to star gaze. It was quite cloudy but we still saw a few stars and a constellation called the wing. It has a fancy name but I don’t know it. It got too chilly for your Dad so we came back after about 20 minutes.

Well, I shall put some more cream on my itchy nose and we will go to bed in a little while. I got 10000 steps today. The last 2 days I have been about 100 steps short.
No hurry to get up tomorrow but we turn the clocks back again tonight so I will still probably be up at 6. We will only be 2 hours ahead of you tomorrow. Have a great day tomorrow and remember a prayer for Frank.

Love you all, Mom, Granny and Bonnie

PS:  Hey Kyle and Cathy you still out there. Haven’t heard from you. Matt you send the weirdest emails!