The Cruise

I went on a cruise. I've always wanted to, because, well, I grew up in the 70's and 80's - I watched The Love Boat, so I've always wanted to do it. My husband gets sea sick, so that kept us from doing it alone, but for my parents' 40th anniversary, they helped each of my siblings and their spouses to do it.

I'd have written about it along the way, but I watched The Net, so I'm still a little unsure about informing the entire world wide web when I'm going to be gone, and the cost of staying connected with any form of reality is prohibitive. So we really left and didn't talk to our children or their caretakers for a little over 4 days.

I'm pretty sure the cruise line lost money on us. We didn't gamble, didn't drink what wasn't free, didn't buy any art or jewelry, and we ate what would have been in real world dollars way more than the cost of our tickets. I had so much fun eating different kinds of things. For example, my last supper on the cruise I had: a wild mushroom pastry, asparagus soup, prime rib, lobster, curried chickpeas (which was, believe it or not, probably better than the prime rib or the lobster), and cherries jubilee. It was all amazing and delicious.

For me, just sitting down and having someone bring me food is a delight. But this wasn't just food. It was excellent food, with excellent service, in beautiful surroundings, with 9 of the people I like best in the world. And I didn't have to do the dishes!

I had a goal of working out as much as possible. So the first full day, I did 40 minutes on the elliptical, and then went up on the top deck where there was a track, and walked/ran a little over 5K. That was huge for me.

Each day I did either one or the other of those things. I also swam in the ocean, in the pool (which unfortunately tasted just like the ocean) and almost never took the elevator. (our room was on the 9th floor, we ate on either the 3rd or 11th, the pool and fitness center were in the 11th and 12th) I ice skated and roller bladed - neither of which burned many calories because I was clinging to the wall and trying hard not to get a concussion. And the last full day, I did a total of 5 miles on the elliptical and a 5K. The 5K was on deck, like the other days, but it was during peak tanning hours. All the lawn chairs were full, and there I was, fat chick, running (jog/walk/shuffling) around and around. People were counting laps (strange, usually people count children when they see me) as I went around. Some started cheering and high-fiving me. It got really fun.

I am like two reality shows in one: The Duggars meet The Biggest Loser.

The other really outstanding thing for me about the trip that I'll mention now is that I was amazed at how many colors the ocean is. I just couldn't believe it. In Bermuda, in the bright sunshine, it was the definition of "aquamarine". Later it was royal blue to my left, and silvery gray to my right, below the clouds. Then the sky was also blue and gray, and I just have to say, I enjoyed my Father's palette very much.

We also got to see a couple Portuguese Man-Of-War, and I ate Escargot. It was amazing. A couple nights later they were selling Royal Caribbean Cookbooks and it had their recipe for Escargot. It has a stick of butter in it. No wonder it tasted good.