HAPPY THANKSGIVING FROM ARUBA!

November 25, 2010
Sunny and 80 F
No matter what, being in Aruba is not the same as having our wonderful family together for Thanksgiving. I know that everyone back home is enjoying a great Thanksgiving, but we miss our family! We wish all our family and friends a very Happy Thanksgiving Day. We are thankful for all of them!
Aruba, about 74,000 square miles in size with a population of about 34,000 people, is a friendly island. We do the same things every time we are here—shop and have lunch at Iguana Joe’s in Oranjestad, the capital and the port we have always arrived at. Today I looked at watches at Diamonds International and Little Switzerland. We bought our Aloe Aruba sunscreen. The shopping is very near the port and the traffic is busy, but drivers always stop at the crosswalks for pedestrians.

I am really hoping that turkey, dressing, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie are on the menu tonight. Tim has decided that we will sit with a large group of people-that only seems right on Thanksgiving Day. When we returned to the ship today we went to the pool. I am reading another Greg Iles book, The Devil’s Punchbowl—set in Natchez, Mississippi. The protagonist is trying to save the town from vicious dog fighting and other dangers.

A football game (Lions vs. Patriots) was on the big movie screen. People seemed to be rooting for the Patriots. 

Tim went to a gathering of U.S. military veteran-he said there were two WW II veterans, one had served in WW II, Korea, and Vietnam. He just told me there is a cornucopia display in the lobby that I need to see.
For our Thanksgiving feast, we dined in the Michelangelo dining room with six Canadians from Ontario. They were very sweet and we had a lot in common-all retired, one (Fred) had been a secondary French teacher, and they all liked to cruise. Even though lobster was also on the menu, we opted for the turkey and “fixins.” In this case that meant chestnut dressing, cranberry sauce, polenta, yams, broccoli, and gravy. The pumpkin pie was a little different, but good. I guess I should consider all the calories I saved by not eating several helpings of turkey, nice soft dinner rolls, and more than one piece of pumpkin, apple, and pecan pie. I admit I had two pieces of pumpkin pie at dinner, but their two pieces equals one of mine at home! The bottom line was that we enjoyed the dinner despite missing our family.

At one point, to make conversation while we were comparing cruises, I asked our new Canadian friends if they had ever sailed on a ship that showed silent films. Esther quickly retorted, “We are not that old!” We all had a laugh and I backpedaled by explaining that our cruise through the Panama Canal in February did have silent films in the afternoon by the pool, like The General with Buster Keaton.

After dinner Tim went to the movie, The Expendables, and I read my book in the piano bar (the pianist was Ray Coussins, former pianist with Frank Sinatra). He was very good.