Excellent Adventure-part two

But not right away. (See end of previous blog.) The next day was spent at sea. Fortunately, the gulf was calm and we felt very little movement. Doug and I slept until 9:30 in the morning as we had no shore excursions to get up for. We had spent the past eight hours just sailing out of the Mississippi River, so the air was still fairly cool, and it was misting rain. We went to the buffet for breakfast. Before we left, I got some cranberry juice to take with me. Doug noticed the plastic cup had a leak in the bottom, and it had leaked dark red juice on my brand-new khaki pants. We headed back to the cabin so I could try to get it out. As we walked by the pool, we passed under an awning. At that very moment, water poured off the awning and onto the top of my head, drenching my hair and shirt. Apparently, they had been swabbing the deck above. Doug was about two steps behind me and was able to jump back just in time. Now I had to go back to the cabin to clean my pants and dry my hair. Fortunately, I had a Tide pen with me which did a fine job of taking out the cranberry juice. I should do a commercial for Tide!

Once we were cleaned up, we went to the game room and played the first of several Scrabble games. We are very evenly matched, so our games are quite competitive. We next went to the library and read and checked out books. After that, we attended the Latitudes Party in the Galaxy lounge. Latitudes is the club you become part of after your first cruise. Basically, the party meant a band played, you met the captain and staff leaders, and they gave you free drinks. As you know, we are not drinkers, but we tried a rum punch since they gave it to us. It was a bit too strong. We swapped it for a Pina colada and still left most of it behind.

We next went to the Latitudes Lounge, a smaller lounge for members only. It was really nice – big windows, comfy leather chairs, coffee and cookies. I discovered the delicious chocolate macademia nut cookies that would add considerably to my waistline during the week. This room became our preferred place to read or play games.

That afternoon, we walked for several laps around the track on the uppermost deck. The weather was better at that point, and we no longer needed our jackets.

We dressed up for dinner that night as they were taking portrait pictures in the lobby. Dinner was better than the night before. Afterwards we went to the show and it was great! A very talented group of young people did a song and dance tribute to Broadway.
We were amazed at their energy!

That evening we went to the Galaxy lounge to watch passengers participate in the Newlywed game. It was hilarious. We sat with another couple and enjoyed watching it together.

I went to bed that night, feeling much better about our trip. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get to sleep and ended up worrying half the night about our house. After that, however, I forgot my worries and just had a good time.