BACK ON LAND!

AT SEA

Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Sunny and 80s, water temperature 76 F. The captain said the water depth was 40,000 feet at one point. THAT IS DEEP WATER, like between 7 to 8 miles deep.
 

We knew that today poolside was going to be very busy, so we went straight to the pool by 8 a.m. The lounge chairs were fully saved by 8:45 a.m. As I mentioned before there are at least 150 “groupies” for the rock n roll band, as well as at least a group of 100 square dancers. I suspect everyone turned into a groupie for the rock band because everyone knew they were playing poolside from 3 to 5 p.m. today.  We have stayed in the shade all cruise—Dr. Mink would be pleased with me! Tim does go in the pool and he is brown.  So, today I spent 9 hours reading by the pool and listening to Calypso Trio and then Spike and the Bulldogs!

Spike and the Bulldogs: Today I spoke to one of the fans. Most of the “groupies” are from Indiana near Fort Wayne, some from Ohio and Kentucky. Spike is retiring and moving to Utah, so this is his farewell tour. The Bulldogs are proceeding forward with the band and will continue to do rock n roll cruises. There are five members of the band: Spike-the vocalist; two electric guitars, a sax player, and a keyboard. Others do sing, but Spike is very good.

Some songs: At the Hop, Palisades Park, Whole Lotta Shakin Goin On, Louie Louie, Let’s Twist Again, Charlie Brown, Run Around Sue, Only the Lonely, Pretty Woman, Mustang Sally, Hang On Sloopy, Peggy Sue, Twist n Shout, Surfin Safari, Shakin All Over, Stand By Me, Light My Fire, etc.

This whole experience makes me want to be a groupie for a band back home. Tim said we already were, back in the day (Tennessee Back Porch). All these Spike fans are about our age and they are STILL singing and dancing.

Tonight we returned to Il Adagio for Italian dinner.  Excellent! 

 

LAST SEA DAY ON THE SUN

Wednesday, February 12, 2014
Sunny, 82 F, water temperature 78 F

By the last day of the cruise everyone is wise. Tim was lucky to find two lounge chairs on the pool deck in the shade at 7 a.m. I am not going to go overboard about this, but a man next to us had towels on FOUR chairs at 7 a.m. and NO ONE but him sat there until 2:30 p.m. Earlier, at noon, he said his wife and daughter were still sleeping! #&*! His wife showed up at 2:30 when I was leaving. Four chairs reserved????

At 2:30 I went back to the room to start packing, fearful that our old and new belongings would not fit in our suitcases. With a lot of huffing and puffing and stuffing, I made everything fit. Thank goodness. Four of our suitcases will be ported dockside for customs purposes. (We will leave them outside our room in the hallway tonight. We will be responsible for our carry-ons and my tech gear tomorrow---thank goodness for the bag bungee—I hope to attach the tech gear bag to my carry-on—easier on my back. I asked Tim if he has a strategy after we retrieve our bags. He planned his strategy when we docked in Miami 10 days ago—I will find a porter while he locates our bags. Then we will ask our porter to help us get a taxi to our hotel and the truck.  Last December when we cruised, we did not ask the porter about the taxi part and he just unloaded us among about 200 other people outside the terminal area looking for a taxi to the airport. We hope for the best!

Tonight after dinner we ran into Kevin and Linda (Sim—“Scotnadian”), our Scottish-Canadian friends. We decided to go to dinner with them (we did not eat)—it was the last night and we hadn’t seen them for a while—a lovely couple also on the ship for two cruises.  Linda told us that they met one of the comedians—as a joke in his show he had said, “How do you know if bagpipes are out of tune?” Everyone laughed. When Linda met him she told him she was from Scotland, and SHE knows when bagpipes are out of tune! After that they became friends! I liked that story. 

After good byes, Tim and I finished packing and set four bags outside our room in the hall. I even took a picture of our bags, no repeat incidents for us anymore!

 

MIAMI, FLORIDA—GOOD BYE SUN!

Miami to Estero, Florida
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Rain, then sun, cooler, 68 F
 

Tim’s plan worked perfectly. We were in our taxi headed for the hotel within 15 minutes of getting off the ship, already through customs (I was a little worried about the nutmeg I bought at the market in St. Lucia). We were at our hotel by 9:30 a.m.  One of the smoothest debarkations ever.

We shopped at Miramar and then picked up Tom and Carol for dinner at Miller’s Ale House. Thirty five shrimp, fries, and salad for $10. Then we went to Jeff and Carmel’s----Jeff told us that a lot of national sports figures hang out at Miller’s, e.g. Boston Red Sox. We found out that the Red Sox and one other team train here and tickets for spring training games run $200/per person, if you can get them.  He said Boston fans buy houses and come down just for Spring Training season.

We saw on the news that the east coast was pounded with snow again---we heard that many of our cruise friends did not get home.

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY!
Estero, Florida
Friday, February 14, 2014
Sunny, 70 F (no snow!)

We picked up Tom and Carol and drove to the Fleamasters Flea Market. This market is worth going to!! We spent about 2 ½ hours there then returned to Tom’s. About 3 p.m. Mary Lou and Scorchy arrived from Dade City to play Trivial Pursuit with us—a family tradition. Even though we drew for teams it turned out to be the girls vs. the boys and the boys trounced us twice! Alyssa, Jeff’s daughter, and her boyfriend Kyle watched the Koenig family antics during the game.

I was able to speak to B1 and wish her a Happy Valentine’s Day this afternoon—she sounds so grownup! She told me about Patriot’s Day at her school—every class did some sort of Medal of Honor project and today service veterans visited the school and students had a chance to talk to them. Friend H was there to help. I really hated to miss this event.