A Day at Sea

August 1

Today was our first full day at see as we sailed towards Stockholm.  We slept in a little, but Carolyn and I did get up to go to a formal breakfast.  It was nice to be waited on and have some different choices.  I had a pineapple boat of fruit, a ham and cheese omelet and of course, some Danish pastries.  We sat with a nice couple from Australia.

Went to a couple of John Lawrence's talks about Stockholm and things to buy in the Baltic.  Actually saw him in person instead of just watching him on TV.  Bob and his buddies played poker in the cabin.  Looked like Bob was winning when I came back, but I don't think that was the case for the trip as a whole.

Tried a different place for lunch, the Cafe Caribe, for their Asian choices.  I passed on the sushi, but had a nice salad and a bunch of desserts.  After lunch I showed Bob the Beatles Russian doll, but he didn't think it was that great.  Went back to the cabin to rest up for the formal night dinner.  Right before dinner we were invited to the Captain's Circle meeting.  A sales pitch, of course, but we did get a ticket for a free drink each.

The crabby blond greeter (others had less flattering names for her) at the Michaelangelo dining room said we didn't have reservations and didn't want to seat us.  We told her to go talk to Pim and Stephen and we did finally get to our usual table.  Once we were all there a bunch of waiters came walking in carrying vases of roses.  We thought our menfolk had planned something special, but it turned out it was our good friend, Carolyn, who had ordered the roses for all the women, thanking us for 40 years of memories.  What a sweetheart!

After supper we stood in line to have a photographer take our formal picture.  The first guy wouldn't do it (too many of us for his background), so we went and stood in another line and finally got it done.  As we were waiting in line, music was playing, so each of our menfolk took turns and danced with Carolyn.  She is the only widow in the group and has always been their "Ma".  Very sweet!

After we were done with the photographer we took some formal poses of our own by a musical statue thingy by Crooners Bar.  Then we played more music trivia there.  The boys won again but tied with another team. I used my free ticket for my first alcoholic drink on the ship - a Dirty Monkey (since they didn't know how to make my favorite - a Hummingbird.)  Banana and chocolate- can't go wrong.  A restful day, which we needed for the whirlwind days coming up.