The last day

Day 4

First and most exciting thing is that Dave did indeed figure out the alarm system, so no more beeping in the night. Second thing is that I made it about halfway through Tomatoland and will probably finish it today. It has way too many numbers and long descriptions of people’s qualifications, but it is worth reading. Or I could just summarize it for you, so far: don’t eat tomatoes in the winter unless you know how and where they’re grown, and don’t eat tomatoes from Florida ever.

Dave and I both woke up about 8:30 and came out to look at the ocean. High tide is moving later in the day, so there was actually some beach visible when we woke up. It was a little windy, but still overcast, and warmer than it’s been. I spent some time looking online for the correct way to do one of the boot camp exercises – form is everything, and procrastination is good – before disappearing into the bedroom to complete week 5. The best thing I can say about it is that it was good to be done. I had saved a glass of chocolate milk for after but forgot about it & had cacklin’ instead, which made Tim very happy because now he gets the chocolate milk.

Here’s what’s weird. Slowly but surely, all of our favorite lunch places have closed, so when I’d finished my workout & showered and we were thinking about where to eat lunch, there wasn’t really anyplace we wanted to go. Midtown, Heather’s, JPs… all gone. Warren House is tasty food but I don’t like eating inside there all that much, and it’s too cold for the deck. So we decided to go to Bill’s again – Dave always wants to go there and Tim wanted to try their giant burrito. So we got Tim up and headed in. I had a giant chef salad which is clearly meant for two people. Dave had the red beer, having temporarily given up on the 2x4 (oh, and a burger). Tim had the burrito which was really enormous. He didn’t quite make it all the way through, though he made a valiant effort.

After lunch we walked up to Bruce’s for some licorice and a milk chocolate coconut haystack for Tim. We were going to stop at El Mundo, but it has completed its going out of business and is now George Vetter photography – an entire store dedicated to photographs of Cannon Beach. We didn’t go in. We did swing through the North By Northwest gallery, home of our favorite Christopher Burkett photos (at $5,000 to $7,000, we just visit them) before heading to the chocolate café. The plan was that I’d get a hot chocolate (which I did) and Tim would get a chocolate milkshake, but Tim had been so defeated by the burrito and haystack that he didn’t even want to get one to take back to the house. I drank some of my hot chocolate but am mostly looking forward to reheating it for breakfast tomorrow.

It looked like it was trying to clear up while we were in town, but when we got home it had given up. Dave, not to be deterred, grabbed the warm blanket and went out for some reading and a nap on the deck. He still has some sudokus from the ship and we should have brought them – it would be funny to have a picture of him in a deck chair doing a Sudoku, just like on the ship, but wrapped in a blanket and with gray skies and seas instead of blue. After napping a little he came in and napped on the couch some more. Meanwhile I finished Tomatoland, which was ultimately unsatisfying – it just sort of petered out. But the message remains: don’t buy or eat tomato-shaped objects – if it looks like a tomato, but doesn’t smell or taste like one, you’re using your money to support bad things.

Once Dave woke up from all that napping he was feeling the need to get out and do some walking, and the tide had gone out enough to make that possible. We booted up and headed down. The problem is that even though there was a very low tide (-1.5) scheduled for tonight, it wasn’t until 6:30-ish, when it is too dark to see the path to the beach and also you run the risk of raccoons. Speaking of raccoons, Dave and I haven’t seen any, but Tim saw one last night while we were out. Anyway, we made our way down the path to the beach and over to the waterfall, which was considerably diminished after only one day without rain. It was still way bigger than it is in the summer, and also still heading off to the north rather than straight into the ocean. This, combined with the boulder garden, makes it almost impossible to get to the carriage road with dry feet unless you do boulder hopping, which I didn’t want to do.

I finally gave in and just waded through the water, filling my boots. It wouldn’t be a trip to the coast if I didn’t have at least one instance testing how water-resistant my boots are once the water is inside them. I was somewhat pleased to discover that they’re just as good at keeping the water in as they are at keeping it out. Dave chose the dry boulder-scramble route. The sand seems low to me at the entrance to the carriage road – it’s something of a scramble to get on it, and there’s a pool of water in front of it. We walked to the end and took a picture. By this time the sun had set, and Dave was getting a little worried about being able to see the boulder garden well enough to chart a course back. So we headed back, and this time both of us did the boulder scramble. I would have gotten back without getting wet, except I was already wet to the knees so it was not really a big deal.

Once we got back I played on my kindle and Dave and Tim took turns blowing my hair around with their helicopters. Speaking of helicopters, we saw a coast guard one today – it came from the north, then turned around out over the ocean in front of the house and went back. We don’t know what that was about. At 6:15 I called the Irish Table, which doesn’t take reservations for groups less than 4. If you call them before 6, they tell you to call after 6. So I called and my buddy Sean said there were no spaces until 8:15. I was crushed, told him that was too late, and hung up. We called Tim in to conference about what to do. Tim’s take on it was there was no point in eating anywhere else, and we should wait until 8:15. So I called Sean back, and he took my cell number in case something opened up. Tim decided he’d better have a bowl of cacklin’ to fortify himself for the long wait. Tim hasn’t figured out that since he is not getting any exercise at all, his food capacity has dropped in a big way. We started a game of bananagrams that ultimately fizzled out – I got the last tile, which was a Q, but had no U’s at all, and Dave and Tim were both stuck and not inclined to redo their letters. Fortunately it didn’t matter because Sean called and said we could come at 7:15, which was totally excellent.

We got there a little before 7:15 and they walked us right in to our table. The restaurant was basically empty – what seems to happen is that they end up doing several seatings throughout the night. It was nice that we got there before most of the folks, because our food came unusually quickly. I had the mussels, of course. I started with a salad and a piece of bread, both of which I should have skipped (although they’re both very good) because 1) even though it’s called an appetizer, it’s a considerable mound of mussels and 2) you want to eat at least 2 slices of bread that you’ve soaked in the mussel cooking liquid and 3) they had pumpkin bread pudding for dessert. So I ate way too much. Dave and Tim both ate too much too, because everything there is really, really good. It’s not fancy food, but it is so well prepared and imaginatively cooked that it’s really a special treat. Also something that was funny is that they had lamb chops served over champ. Not knowing what champ is (it’s mashed potatoes cooked with leeks or scallions) was one of the things that lost us our food trivia crowns on the ship. We didn’t have any – it was too painful. Dave and I also each had a hot biddy, while Tim watched enviously.

We got home and had a quiet evening of watching the fire and reading. I also put in some serious buckyball time, which I hadn’t done yet this trip. I figured out how to split the cube, and twice I even split that, but that was the end of my success. Now Dave is fighting with the fire which keeps filling the room with smoke, and it’s about to be bedtime. No towel animal again tonight.

Black Friday

Woke up this morning to partly cloudy skies and no wind at all. The waves still seem bigger than usual, but as I’m looking at them I wonder if it’s a perspective thing – the tide is very high in the mornings, so waves that would normally be much further out are close in. Who knows? It’s odd, though, to have the wind completely gone. We did get up twice last night at the expected times with the alarm, and one time when the wind was blowing the heavy rain in through the open window (although that could have been one of the times we were already up with the alarm, I don’t remember). Winter weather at the coast really is moment by moment.

We got milk yesterday, so I could have some cacklin’ for breakfast, which was yummy as usual. We had two gulls on the deck, so I went out & shared some cacklin’ with them also – one of them was willing to sit on the railing and try to catch them when I threw them. My aim’s not too good, and the gull was not that in to it, so many just flew past onto the yard. Maybe when we come back in the summer there will be a cacklin’ bush! I started reading Tomatoland, an actual book I took out from the library. I’ve been reading books on my kindle or phone or kindle app on my laptop, and I have to say that a physical book is not as convenient, and certainly requires more dexterity. So far also I’m not sure I’m going to enjoy the book – the writing isn’t very engaging. I’ll work on it a while longer.

Dave got up not long after I did and applied himself to the alarm issue. He found the alarm manual online by doing a google images search, and according to the manual when it does the 5 beeps it means “trouble”. Yeah, we kind of figured that out already. He also set the time correctly so now if it beeps it will do it at 8 am, 6 and 9 pm – much more civilized. I called Debbie, and she said she’d call the alarm company. I went in the bedroom to do some stretching and Dave kept working on the manual, and eventually found out how to get the alarm status. He got the status, which said everything was ok – apparently there was not really any trouble. Interestingly, the asterisk which had been flashing on the display went away – so maybe we have solved the problem. Dave called Debbie and told her never mind.

All the calling and beeping woke Tim up, so he got up and showered and we headed to Bill’s for lunch. We got there a little early – they don’t open until 11:30 – so we walked up to Bruce’s to see what was happening, and also to see if any restaurant had gone in where JPs used to be. Oh boy oh boy, Newman’s is opening a Japanese/sushi restaurant! I can’t wait to go there with Josh and Jen in January. Of course Josh and I may have to try it out before then. At Bruce’s they were not doing anything interesting, which seems to be the case lately, hmmm. Maybe they’re outsourcing? But they did have a 1 lb gummy bear on a stick, possibly one of the most disgusting candy items I’ve ever seen.

After a short stop at the toy store we headed to Bill’s, which had its usual pre-opening line. They opened up at about 11:35, and I’m thinking the perfect arrival time is 11:45, so you’re not in the bubble. They had a cherry porter, which Dave tasted and found a little strange, so he ordered his usual 2x4 instead. Both last summer and today he wondered if they have changed the recipe for 2x4, because it used to be his all-time favorite stout, and now it’s not. Has the recipe changed, or has he found others he likes better? We didn’t ask. Tim was starving and grumpy, so I didn’t even try to take the traditional picture. But then it happened – we ordered too much food. Tim didn’t even finish the onion rings. So maybe he was just grumpy and not starving. While we were at Bill’s the weather continued to clear up, and it was only partly cloudy when we left – nice!

After lunch we went by the Wine Shack to see who will be tasting tomorrow, but there was no sign up and Mr Wine-Know-It-All, the proprietor, was on the phone. Although we wandered around the store for what seemed like a long time he never got off the phone or asked if he could help us. Oooo, that makes me mad! Eventually we just left, and hit the Mariner for cool whip and Oinkin’ Orange Hog Wash. We wanted to give the Hog Wash another try, but it turned out to have the exact same ingredient list and be not quite as yucky, but yucky just the same. Tim wants to keep trying other flavors though.

We came home and I called Margaret, and then we headed out for our annual shopping trip to Nehalem. While I was on the phone it had completely cleared up and it was nice to drive in the bright sunshine. Nehalem was a little disappointing because my favorite store, which had wonderful hats and clocks and bamboo purses, has closed and is now some funky new-age shop. But Dave found an excellent wine colored sweatshirt-weight garment, so the trip was worthwhile. Also we visited Hal’s Emporium, Hal’s dollar-ish discount store, and Hat’s general store, which taken together are the most amazing, wide ranging, amusing, horrifying, spectacular collection of junk ever assembled. From fake gladiator helmets to expired bags of that weird candy they have at dollar stores to evening wear, if Hal doesn’t have it, it’s not been made. My personal favorite was “The Patriotic Blue Star”, a large plasma globe with a flag backdrop and a blue star centerpiece where the plasma lightning would come from, billed as “an interactive symbolic light sculpture”. It was reduced from 19.95 to 9.95, and I almost went for it. Maybe we’ll go back tomorrow.

By the time we were done in Nehalem the fog was starting to roll in, and it was completely foggy by 3:30. So it was nice that we had that sunny interlude (and we got gas at the Shell station by Nehalem Bay State Park, which was also nice). We headed home for afternoon nap and typing and buckyballs.

Tonight’s dinner venue was the Stephanie Inn, which we knew ahead of time would be the weakest of our weekend dinners. Tim had decided in advance that it would be his home alone night. I just can’t understand why a teenage boy would want a night away from his parents. Anyway, my spinach salad and Dave’s seared scallop appetizer and curried lentil soup were both very good, but the entrees just didn’t measure up to the past two nights. Both very good, but missing that whatever that takes food from very good to excellent. One of the things we really like about the Stephanie Inn is that they have optional wine pairings with each course, and the pairings are very well done – in particular, my spinach salad paired so perfectly with the prosecco it came with it was a little like a primer on pairing wines – both the salad and the prosecco were good on their own, but together they made something special. I had a huckleberry sorbet for dessert that was not just very tasty (and not too sweet, which was a surprise) but also visually entrancing – gorgeous, deep purple wine colored spheres.

On the way home we had to listen to some crow’s nest music – they’re in Ensenada tonight. It was so good we ended up sitting in the car finishing up Marc Cohn’s Walking in Memphis. This also gave Tim time to hide so we couldn’t find him and he could oink like a pig when we got in. He had enjoyed his pesto dinner from home and even done all the cleaning up. After changing into my loungewear I very much enjoyed getting on facebook and seeing pictures of Josh with practically all my east coast family (ok, no aunts or uncles or cousins, but how much can you do in one day?). Then it was game time. We started with pepper, which I usually don’t enjoy very much but I won the first game very fast. It even worked out how I visualized it, which never happens. So I was in a very good mood through the next many games, all of which I did not win. Tim won more than Dave, but Dave won plenty. Dave’s heart was not totally in the game, because for some reason even though he won the first game of trouble we played a couple of nights ago, his loss in the second game has totally bummed him out. It was winner take all tonight, and Dave won, but it was a completely hollow victory because Tim and I were locked in a totally epic trouble battle – I had 2 men still in home, and he just needed a 1 to get his last piece in for the second place win. I got all my men out and ended up sending his one man back to home and winning second place – but it was such an exciting game that I feel that I was the overall winner and Dave still feels like he needs a rematch.

Afterwards Dave and Tim had Oreo time, but I have eaten enough today already. We’ve got Christmas music on the jambox, and I’m going to make a cup of tea and try to get in to Tomatoland.

Turkey Day

Woke up at 8:30 after a rough night last night to an amazing high tide and windy, stormy skies and seas. The water is coming all the way up the beach onto the rocky areas, and the wind is blowing the spume off the tops of the waves. I wonder how far the storm extends. I wonder if it’s reaching the Oosterdam, halfway to Ensenada. If it is, and I were there, you know I’d be sloshing in the pool. But I am happy to be here watching this beautiful world.

You may be wondering why last night was a rough night. Two things. First, when we got in bed we discovered that they have put fleece sheets and pillowcases on the bed. Yes, fleece – it’s the next step up from flannel, I guess, and it is very strange. First of all it just feels weird, and secondly Dave was afraid his flannel pajamas would interact badly with the sheets and he’d get strangled. Fortunately that turned out not to be the case, and we fell asleep to the sound of the ocean roaring outside the window, one of our favorite things. Unfortunately we didn’t get to stay asleep very long. At 3:20, the alarm decided it had waited long enough for someone to pay attention to it, and started in on its beeping again. We shut it up again, but not with the same “ah that’s taken care of now” feeling as before. When we got back in bed it was almost impossible to fall asleep because it was pouring rain again, and it was like being inside a drumset because of the big plastic skylights. We did get to sleep, though, until the alarm system went off again a little after 6. It hasn’t gone off yet again, but we’ll be disturbing somebody’s Thanksgiving to get it taken care of.

Today was a bootcamp day for me. Dave was a little nervous that if I did it in the living room the whole house would collapse. No, he’s not making a comment on my size – the supports under the house are questionable at best. So I did it in our bedroom, which isn’t much off the ground, and I shook the house less than the washing machine on the spin cycle, which I think is a compliment. Today was day 3 (both here and on the ship, interestingly) and as I’m trying to do the burpees with the pushups it was pretty hard. But it felt good. Dave took his shower while I was stretching, and I took mine after his. Then we woke Tim up (at 11!) and headed in to town for lunch at the Pig’n, a Thanksgiving tradition since last year. There’s nothing like pigs in a blanket for lunch on Thanksgiving to make you feel thankful. We all ordered what we wanted, and Tim ate what dave and I couldn’t. Once again Tim was disappointed that we wouldn’t let him order any Hog Wash, a low calorie energy drink aimed at kids.

Don’t worry, Tim’s disappointment didn’t last long. After brunch we headed to the mariner market for milk and tea, and while I was standing in line I heard the folks in front of me talking to the cashier about Hog Wash. “You have Hog Wash?” I asked excitedly, and they pointed me to the cooler behind me. It was so exciting – what kind to get? I decided on the Blue Raspberry as the least likely to contain natural ingredients. Tim was very excited when I got back to the car, but he was driving (we’d found out on the way in that Dave left his wallet in the house), so he had to wait until we got home to try it. The weather was pretty extreme, very windy with gusts of heavy rain, so Tim drove pretty carefully for the most part, except for when he was on the ramp onto the highway. The van is not a Ferrari, it just sounds like one.

Once we got home it was Hog Wash time, and boy, was it awful. Sweet, loaded with both cane sugar and aspartame and more chemicals than you can imagine. After I tried it I had to make spitting noises for quite some time. Bleah, bleah, bleah. Dave and Tim later googled it and found that this flavor is widely known as the worst of the hog wash flavors, so we may need to try another. The hog wash segued into a relaxed afternoon of reading and napping and relaxing, which was very nice. Also watching the storm come and go, which was pretty amazing – at times it would just be blowing and raining like crazy, then it would slow down, then it would start up again. Sometimes the wind would be screaming so loud in the hall it sounded almost like a siren. Dave put a towel on the floor in front of the front door because the wind was just blowing right through. (As a side not, Gordon Church, the owner, has been planning on replacing the front door for some time now. He is searching for the perfect door. The suspense is almost too much to bear.)

Around 4 it cleared up again and the tide was well on its way out to a surprisingly low -1.4, so Dave and I put on our boots and headed down for a walk. It was funny because even though I’d showed him a picture of the waterfall full of water, when we got there he was just blown away – the reality is way more impressive than the picture. Once again there were several waves that came up way higher than any of the usual waves. We tried to get to the carriage road, but the sand is really low, and the water from the waterfall made it pretty much impassable if you wanted to have dry feet, which we did. Dave got lots of great pictures of the cloudy, sunset colored sky reflected in the wet sand. It was an invigorating and enjoyable walk.

When we got back to the house I had time for a short call to the Bubster in MA, and then it was time to get dressed for the Nehalem River Inn. We went there a couple years ago with Rhonda the evil piano teacher and her husband Tracy and had a really good time, but neither of us could remember much about the food except it had been fine. Once again Tim got dressed without complaining – that is a nice change this year. We headed out at about 5:30, and the weather was awful – buckets of rain and lots of wind. This is kind of scary when you’re driving on the poorly lit twisty road with barely visible lines and a sheer dropoff down to the ocean on your right. But Dave did good driving, and we found the restaurant (it’s just past the Nehalem Winery over the bridge on the left). Tim was sort of stunned when we got there, because on the outside it looks like we should have been riding our Harleys and wearing our jeans and leather jackets. Inside, though, it’s a very nice restaurant, and we were seated at the same table we’d had before.

The dinner was a 3 course prix fixe menu, with 2 appetizers (butternut squash soup or arugula salad), 3 entrees (turkey dinner, red snapper, and quail) and 3 desserts. Dave and Tim had the soup and turkey, and I opted for the salad and quail. The appetizers were all very good, although last night’s butternut squash is still the champ. What wine with turkey and quail? We considered a pinot noir, but ended up with a 2009 Domaine Drouhin ‘Arthur’ chardonnay – an excellent choice. My quail, with “vanilla scented root vegetable hash, brussel sprout petals, and a duck confit-carmelized onion puff pastry”, was simply spectacular, just amazing, indescribably good – so much so that I ate the whole thing, which I don’t usually do with entrees. Dave and Tim’s turkey was good too – very good – but I think mine was the best. Dessert was also yummy, and the coffee was very good. A memorable meal for sure, and no cleanup!

Fortunately it had stopped raining when it was time to drive home, and since it’s Christmas music time I enjoyed playing a selection of my favorites (Dasher Dancer Prancer Vixen! Huh!) on the way home. And of course when we got home it was time for some Punkin’ Chunkin’ on the discovery channel, another tradition since last year. This is where people build giant contraptions to throw pumpkins across a field. There are several divisions of machines of increasing power, concluding with the air cannons, and it is strangely compelling television. We were all pleased when the novice air cannon team with the outsize budget (and the word ‘Yankee’ in their name) lost by 4 feet.

Afterwards it was time for farkle, at which, honestly, nobody sparkled. Where’s Josh when you need him? There were a few good rolls, but mostly it was 50s and 100s – painful. Tim won the first game by quite a bit, and I won the second one in a cliffhanger – Tim needed 3,000 points to tie, but farkled at 2300. We all agreed, though, that they were two of the lamest farkle games ever.

Here is what is hanging over our heads tonight. The alarm went off yesterday at 5:20pm, 3:20 am, and just after 6 am. Then it didn’t go off all day until exactly 5:20pm. So we’re wondering… do we get a complete night sleep tonight? Stay tuned, and Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving 2011

So today is our first day, and we had a pretty easy time getting ready. Dave put out the folding table on Tuesday so we could be putting things we wanted to take on it – we did that for the cruise and it seemed to make the packing go more easily. I woke up early, since I went to bed early, and had a leisurely morning since everybody else slept in. This worked out well because Diane from the rental agency called shortly afterwards to tell me that 101 was closed north of the intersection with 26 because of flooding. This was interesting but useless, since we go south on 101, but it was nice of her to call. Then she called again, but she was just confused about who she’d called & who she hadn’t. Dave got up about 8:30 and we started our day (ok, I had one more game of kenken and then I started my day). I started out by doing most of my packing, then I headed over to Forest Grove Health & Fitness for a Nia class. Nia is this strange kind of dance exercise, and I enjoyed it very much, except for the parts about thanking the universe and embracing the world, which I just can’t quite get my head around. What was particularly weird about it was that although I never felt like I was working very hard, I was completely drenched with sweat at the half hour mark (it’s an hour class). Also fortuitously most of the dance moves were based off the cha-cha, the only dance class Dave and I went to on the ship. So I did not look like a total spaz. Also today’s theme was “there is no wrong way”, so that made me feel pretty good.

After Nia I took my sweaty self to the Safeway to pick up the things we need for the coast – Cacklin’ (I got the last 3 boxes!), Oreos, dry roasted peanuts (Dave says the regular ones are too oily – mess up your iPad screen), V-8, that sort of thing. When I got home Dave already had the hotdogs ready for lunch. After lunch I threw all the stuff in suitcases (so far all I’ve forgotten is tea) and got the trash ready for Stephanie Friend to take out tomorrow. Tim and Dave loaded the car. We were planning on leaving at 2:45, since it takes about 1:15 to get here and check-in isn’t until 4, but at about 1:45 Diane called again wondering how close we were. “Uhhhh… we haven’t left yet,” I answered brilliantly. I still don’t entirely understand what was going on, but she seemed to want us to come as soon as possible, so since we were packed we headed out. She wanted me to call her when we were almost there, so I figured I’d call about 20 minutes out. No cell service. I ended up calling about 10 minutes out, and it turned out Debbie-the-owner-of-Arch-Cape-Property-Services was in the office and we could just go pick up the key. Like I said I’m not sure what all the fuss was about. Diane asked if we knew how to get to the office (“I think we can find it,” I said, “since we’ve been coming here for 20 years”) and warned us that the stairs to the beach were slippery, which I wasn’t sure we’d need to know since the forecast is for rain, rain, rain the whole time we’re here.

We got to the office about 3:15, and after chatting with Debbie about the storm and the power outages and her managing to scrape up two keys to the house we were off. There’s supposed to be a new front door and a dresser in our bedroom sometime, but apparently not until this summer. When we got to the house it was both sunny and low tide, so after we got the car unloaded I took off for the beach, mindful of the slippery stairs. Well, it was a very cool walk. The sand here seems to be extraordinarily low – the close in mushroom rock is completely exposed in its mushroomy-ness. The really amazing thing, though, is the waterfall, which is bigger and fuller than I think I’ve ever seen it. There’s a geocache up there that you get to by climbing up the rocks next to the waterfall, and those rocks are completely underwater now. Also the water, which usually comes off the waterfall and goes straight to the ocean, heads north towards the carriage road. I had headed down to the beach right away in my sneakers, not wanting to miss the chance, and I would have done well to change into my boots. The mesh on my sneakers is, not surprisingly, not waterproof. Since I had sneakers I couldn’t go up towards the carriage road, since that’s where the water from the waterfall was going, so I headed back towards the house. Just then a giant sneaker wave came! The tide was way out – like a -.7 – and the water came almost all the way up to the waterfall. When I saw it come in I headed up the beach in a leisurely fashion – but I ended up having to move quite alacritically to stay dry.

By the time I got back to our beach my feet were pretty wet – there are a lot of streams coming down across the beach, many more than in the summer. When I got up Dave and Tim had connected to the internet and were enjoying the view – which was pretty cloudy by the time I got back. By 5 the sun had set – very different from summer! We hung out reading and relaxing and watching the sky and the waves. Shortly after I got back it completely clouded over and poured down rain, then it partially cleared up again. The Oregon coast is an amazing place. Two exciting things happened while we were having our relaxing time. First, we figured out how to use the Jambox as a speakerphone and called Josh during his layover in Newark (He’s headed to Connecticut to spend Thanksgiving with my brother Ira and his family for Thanksgiving and I miss him so much it’s like a window in my heart.) That was really nice. Not so nice was when we kept hearing a beeping noise in the back of the house. We finally tracked it down and found it was the alarm system – every minute or two it would give 5 little beeps. I called ACPS and got Diane, who was very apologetic and completely unable to help. She called back a bit later and said it might be messed up because of all the power outages, and here’s how to reset it. We did, and it stopped beeping.

At 6 it was time to get ready to go to Newman’s for dinner. Newman’s is the best high end food in Cannon Beach, and possibly on the coast. It’s so good that Tim put on his dress up clothes without complaining. It did not disappoint. We had a bottle of the same 2008 gigondas that we had this summer, and the top dish was the butternut squash soup with pickled eggplant – yes, better than the butternut squash soup in the Pinnacle. It was nice to have Tim there – in addition to the pleasure of his company, he finished most of the things I was too full to finish. We were supposed to get milk after Newman’s, but we forgot. It would probably be easier just to bring milk with us.

After dinner Tim drove home – the gigondas is a 14.5, and we finished the bottle. I was feeling pretty happy (although missing Josh), and Dave was feeling invincible. At least I figure that’s why he called for Trouble. We played two games, and he dominated the first game – I think I had one man out, and Tim had two, when Dave won. This was clearly Not Acceptable, so we jumped right into the second game, which was a real cliffhanger with no clear leader and lots of honking. But I won, thanks to a very good series of pops on the pop-o-matic. Dave and Tim dueled it out for second, and despite Dave popping 4 sixes IN A ROW, Tim won by a short head. I don’t have the skill to describe the intensity, the suspense, the pressure, and the thrill of a game of trouble. All I can say is that three games would be too much to handle.

Then it was time for some blogging, and listening to Chris’s albums (yes, Chris from the crow’s nest). Dave said it was like being in the crow’s nest, because nobody was bringing us our club soda. I feel like I should end this with a note about tonight’s towel animal, but this isn’t a place where there are towel animals. It’s a very good place, though, and I am thankful to be here.

Day 14 - Our Bonus Day

I didn’t sleep very well last night – maybe it was the chocolate dessert with dinner – so when I woke up at 6 I figured I’d turn off the alarm and head up to the gym to get caught up on the blog – I figured I might as well do it there so I could get my stretches done and get caught up without getting caught up in it and missing the beginning of stretching. When I got to the gym Mark was there and I asked if we could reschedule the shoulder massage, and it turns out it was yesterday. But we rescheduled it for 2 today. Also there was the sun, rising nicely off the bow. Mark said it’s the first time in our entire trip back that he’s seen a sunrise, although for the first half of the trip he was looking in the wrong direction. The Spa/Salon folks are really a separate entity on the ship – they didn’t participate in Joel’s show last night, or in the crew farewell today. It’s unclear how much they get out of the gym! Anyway, the classes were their usual excellent selves. I will really miss the morning stretch class – it is just a good way to get your day started. I will miss abs class less, although I will miss exercising with folks my own age. It’s easier to challenge yourself when an older person is making you look bad.

On a side note, the ship has been averaging over 20 knots, to make up some of the time we lost. This is faster than on the way to Hawaii, and the ship vibrates a little, in addition to pitching, rolling, and yawing because of the rough water and swells. During stretch class Mark said not to push the stretch so that your muscles vibrated, and it was a little hard to tell if it was the ship or the muscles. He also kept saying that it wasn’t supposed to hurt, and that if it hurt we should back off. During abs class I was hoping he’d say the same thing, but he didn’t, and at one point gave an evil cackle much like Coach Tim. What is it with these guys?

After abs class they were out of true moo, so I had darigold instead. It’s not as sweet, but I like the true moo better. While I was getting it I saw Merna waiting in line, so I tracked her and mama down to say hi and also eat some of mama’s bacon. Back to the cabin, then back up to lido aft for Zumba. For the whole cruise I’ve been holding back with Zumba, using it as a warmup for boot camp. Today there was no boot camp so I could go completely nuts with the Zumba, which I did and was it fun! Of course the seas were still quite rough, so it was even more challenging than it would have been since all the core muscles that do balance had to be engaged as well. Your lifestylist Louise decided not to stand on the side of the pool deck the way she’s been doing for fear of falling off. Dave and I talked about it last night, and both of us believe that the ship tends to roll slightly more to one side than the other because of anticipation/guide errors on the stabilizers. I had come to believe it because the water tends to go up more on one side of the pool than the other, and during Zumba I noticed we were more likely to take big steps going starboard than to port. This ended up running me into the stack of deck chairs, but I bounced right off.

After Zumba it was time to head forward for the debarkation talk & crew farewell. We got there about 15 minutes early and it was already SRO on the balcony, which is where we wanted to be, because you can see the whole stage from there. But there were just no seats, so we went downstairs and managed to find some of the very last seats, which were in the last row of the floor seating. Dave came out & did the usual warmup, which is telling stupid questions passengers ask. All of the questions make some sense at first, but then are just silly. For example: “Does this stairway go up or down?” (both) or my favorite new one, asked by a passenger as they were pulling out of a port in Italy: “Is this the same moon we can see from Texas?” (No, it’s the European moon – it’s smaller and it stays up later). It got everybody laughing and more receptive to hearing the debarkation talk. Basically, we have to get off the ship tomorrow, and that’s what it’s all about – settle your bills, return things you’ve checked out, have your bags in the hall by 1 am. He did make a point of saying that you could have your bags out earlier… makes you wonder if some passengers have complained about having to stay up until 1 to put their bags out.

Then it was time for the crew farewell, where they come out and sing “love in any language”. I always like the crew farewell – pretty much every department (except those like the shops, spa, and casino that are separate entities) sends representatives, and they all seem to be having a good time. Arya had told us he would be onstage in the back, and I was worried we wouldn’t be able to see him from where we were sitting. But as it turned out his group came in down the aisle next to where we were sitting, so when we saw him after the show we were able to tell him we’d seen him. Also his smile was probably visible all the way in the front even though he was in the back row.

Then it was pool time for the last time. The swells and rough seas had died down considerably, so it wasn’t as exciting as yesterday, but it was still fun. I will miss the pool. Shower and then lunch, which was a brunch so mama got to have Belgian waffles and we all had mimosas. After lunch we went to the lido to watch the ice carving (swan), and then I stayed for the shipbuilding while Dave went back up on top. The weather has been cool but clear today, and Dave has been spending every possible minute outside. The ship building contest was amazing- someone had made a huge (4’ long) replica of a generic HAL ship, complete with lifeboats, verandahs, and blue and white paint job. They’d also made an orange coast guard helicopter out of a carrot, which made your DJ Brett laugh so hard he almost fell in the pool. And when Brett laughs, everybody laughs. There were 5 ships, 4 of which managed to pass the test of carrying 12 cans of soda and staying afloat for 10 seconds in the sloshing midships pool. The big Dam ship’s pool cover was removable to allow access to the “cargo hold”, which I thought was just amazing. Well, the whole thing was amazing.

Rush rush rush, off to my last massage with Mark, who spent an hour completely unknotting my shoulders. I will miss that very much – I have gotten used to having my shoulders loosened every couple of days. Guess I’ll have to figure out how not to tense them up. Then it was down to the vista lounge for the Filipino cruise show. Although they make up only about 30% of the crew, their show was larger and more organized than the Indonesian show. My favorite was the guys wearing coconut shell bras with tape on various parts of their torsos who did a traditional dance about picking coconuts and then segued into the Macarena. There was also good singing and other good dancing.

Fortunately we had nothing scheduled between the crew show and dinner, so I could go back to the room and do a little typing, and Dave could go aft and take some wonderful sunset pictures. It was a very nice mostly clear day all day, but a little chilly, so Dave had to put on his actual coat to go take pictures. When he got back it was time to get ready for dinner. I had really mixed emotions about dinner – I was looking forward to seeing everybody, but kind of dreading saying goodbye. Dinner was just fun – everybody seemed to be feeling kind of the same. We found out that Rita spells her name Reta, and she and Gus aren’t married, but they both have kids. John complained that his wine pour and soup were smaller than Carol’s (who, it turns out, spells her name Caryl), and we all made fun of him. We took pictures with Putu and Dewa and Michael, and Gus and Reta teased me about spending all my time “sloshing”. I admit, when dinner was over and it was time to say goodbye I got a little teary. It has just been a good time at dinner with this group.

During dinner we docked in Ensenada, Mexico. Apparently there’s a law that all cruise ships have to stop at a foreign port, or something like that, so this ship stops in Ensenada for 4 hours. 3 or 4 busloads of people got off to be taken to a bar to hear mariachi music, but we’d decided that was something we didn’t need to do. We also considered getting off the ship and just going into the terminal to say we’d been in Mexico, but again, something we decided not to do.

After dinner we made our usual trip up to the crows nest for a last evening with Chris. He played many of our favorites, and we did the sing-along to Sweet Caroline that’s been a crowd favorite the last two nights (Dave’s and my “wo – wo –wo” always surprises people). He came over and chatted during his break and we found out he’d been a prison guard after college – he likes singing on the ship better. His last song was James Taylor’s Rockabye Sweet Baby James, and it’s been playing in my head all night as we’ve gotten packed and walked around the ship. The other thing that’s been playing in my head is the sound of the 50 or so sea lions that were on the rocks by the dock – an incredible cacophony that we could hear a mile or two from shore after we left port. At one point many people (myself included) were out on their verandahs barking back at them. We missed the actual casting off of the ropes – the Captain left early, and the ship moves so smoothly we didn’t know we were underway – but we did stand on our verandah as the ship spun around and left the harbor. Next time we dock will be San Diego and it will be time to leave the ship. I have had an amazingly good time, and I don’t want to go.

No towel animal tonight. The transition to real life has already begun.

Day 13 - Last Full day at Sea

There was no zumba today, so I got up early and went to stretch class and abs class. I love stretch class & wish I had a video of it – it Is a great way to start your day. I don’t love abs class, but then who would? We did do one where you pull your legs in while sweeping your arms around to the side and touching your ankles, then straighten your legs out and bring your arms back straight over your head that was less awful than most. Also rolling side to side with your arms up and tucking your knees into your elbows. I have abs of steel now. You just can’t see them. Also since there was no zumba we went to breakfast and had benedicts, which we love. I accidentally got the one with spinach instead of the one with smoked salmon, so we’re going to have to do it again. Maybe tomorrow since there is zumba but no boot camp.

Yes, today was the last day of boot camp. Susan and I feel very proud of ourselves and each other for making it through, especially since today’s workout is the most brutal of the four of them. There’s an exercise called “get ups” which is just killer. Last time through Susan didn’t make it through all the reps, but this time we both did. During the group of 16 reps Mark was trying to be encouraging (Matt was leading the exercises) and I seriously considered taking the 5 pound weight and swinging it at his head. I don’t think it is encouraging when someone who is not doing the exercises says anything, much less when they’re saying things like “halfway there” and “just 5 more”. The only encouraging words are “last one”. Also after the 30 second break Matt or Mark always says “when you’re ready, stand up”. Today I found out that if you don’t stand up, they tell you to stand up anyway. I was not ready.

Today’s weather, like most of the sea-day parts of the trip, started out partly to mostly cloudy and a high of about 70 degrees. And, as has been the case since we left Hawaii, a stiff breeze is blowing – technically a gale, with wind speeds over 40 mph. Also we’re having fabulous seas – 10 foot swells. All this combines to make the midship lido pool the best place to be. After boot camp there was a yummy culinary demo at 11 (raw salmon 4 ways), but I didn’t make it past the pool. It is wonderful, exhilarating fun. You can stand in the corner in the shallow end and tons of water pours off the sides onto your head. Or you can float around and get rolled from side to side and end to end. We’re running parallel to the swells, so even though the ship has two 30 foot by 10 foot stabilizers in the front, it’s really rolling from side to side. When you walk down the corridors on the stateroom decks, you feel like a ping-pong ball, and when we ran in a circle for boot camp warmup it felt like we were running up and down hills. Some passengers are looking a little green, but Dave and I love it. Unfortunately the seas are supposed to be much calmer tomorrow.

Lunch with Merna and Mama, as usual. We’ve been creeping closer and closer to disaster, and it finally happened today – we all ordered dessert. Fortunately we’re nearly at the end of the cruise, so there’s only so much damage we can do. But it’s not helping me show off the 6 pack I developed in abs class. After lunch Dave sat on the verandah and did Sudoku, while I did an after-lunch nap again. After my nap of course it was pool time for an hour. Have I mentioned that I love the pool? Dave came by, he’d been up front and said there was a complete rainbow from the spray the ship is throwing up. Also, oddly, even though the wind is coming from the port side of the ship, our side – the starboard side – is thickly crusted with salt, while the port side isn’t. It seems like the wind should be throwing the spray up on the port side, but it’s not.

I had to get out of the pool before I wanted to because we needed to be at culinary trivia at 4. Looking back, it’s probably just as well – the pool is chilly, and I was quite like an icicle when I got out. Also it’s a little bit of a workout – at least it is the way I do it – so this was I should have some energy for zumba tomorrow. I showered up on the Lido deck and came down to the cabin to get dressed. While I was getting dressed Dave your cruise director (we found out last night he’s 27 – he only looks 12) came on and announced the afternoon & evening’s activities, which had 3 things we should know: 1. Trivia was moved to the northern lights disco, 2. It would be wine trivia (uh-huh) and 3. Tonight’s show is Joel Mason again, which we knew but it was good to hear. So we headed over to the northern lights, which is the disco, a place that up until now I had never stayed in for more than the time it took to walk through it.

The disco was an odd venue for the trivia because it is broken up into circular booths surrounding the dance floor, so all the teams were secluded in their own booths – it added to the competitive feeling. JC your party planner originally thought she’d do 15 questions, but dropped it down to 10 because she feels the need to repeat each question 5 times and it gets boring. This was do-or-die for us to regain our trivia crowns, and thanks to knowing that the lead or plastic covering on the top of the wine bottle is called a capsule, we are the champions! We won a bottle of Santa Catalina Chilean merlot, which were not sure what we’re going to do with. Do they still charge corkage if you won it on the ship? Dave wanted to take it back to the room and drink it, but we have a 5 course wine-paired dinner in the Pinnacle tonight, and I don’t want to go into it already toasted. On a side note, 3 of the 4 original boot camp ladies will be at the dinner – Susan wanted to go but got invited to dinner with the Captain instead. She thought that was the kind of offer you couldn’t refuse. After trivia we headed back to the room for a nap for Dave and some typing and reading for me. At this point we are loving spending time relaxing in our room. It’s weird to think that on our original schedule we’d be getting off the ship tomorrow.

Since our dinner was at the pinnacle and not the usual 5:30 early seating, we got dressed a little early and went to hear Chris play up in the crows nest. Last cruise they had hors d’ouevres up there before dinner but not anymore, or not tonight – too bad, we needed more food. It was fun listening to Chris but we didn’t have very long before we had to go. This dinner is something they made up because the special dinner with the chef was cancelled. Bernie had gone around the dining room and wine tastings asking people if they wanted to go, and had gotten 26 people without any trouble at all. It was held in the same private part of the pinnacle as the cooking class. We ended up at the big center table for 10, sitting next to the couple from Kansas City that we’d sat with at the premium wine pairing. It was an enjoyable time, but the pinnacle seemed to have trouble serving that many people at once, so the dinner took three hours. What it mostly made us realize is how good we have it at home, with the fantastic wines and fabulous chefs at our wine pairing dinners. Two of the wines were local – Sokol Blosser Evolution and the Willamette Valley Vineyards Pinot that we’d had before – which was kind of funny.

After the dinner we had about 25 minutes before Joel Mason was scheduled to start, and I figured we might as well go get good seats, since my definition of good seats is kind of picky – close, but not too close. We ended up in the third row, after trying out the second row and finding it frighteningly exposed. I was on an aisle so I had a clear shot at Zac the bass guitarist. Chris had told us that there would be cameos by many of the staff, and he was making quite the understatement. The show started with repeated announcements that they couldn’t find Dave the Cruise Director, but we know there are no accidents in magic. So DJ Brett announced the show, when the piano rose from the pit, it was Dave wearing another of Joel’s flamboyant costumes – this time with even taller red heels – the one that’s on the cover of the DVD. I thought the show took a little while to get up some steam, which surprised me a little as I was ready to rock from the get go. Joel’s wife, who turned out to be named Bonnie, had a rather large part in the show, and I didn’t think she’s as funny as he is. But eventually things really got rolling, and while I didn’t end up with bruises on my hands from clapping this time it wasn’t from lack of trying. The heart of the show was an extended blues number in which half the performers on the ship performed “solos”, ranging from a fiery display of piano playing by your techspert Brian to an exercise solo by Dave dressed as an old lady. It got to the point where every time he said the word “solo” you’d hold your breath waiting to see what was going to happen. What else, let’s see. At one point Alex the electric guitar player came over and started playing the piano, so Joel played electric guitar for much of the show – it’s much more mobile than a piano after all. The big closing number was a rendition of Charlie Daniel’s The Devil went down to Georgia on piano that was both funny and amazing, including a repeated bit where Joel kicked the piano bench over and Dave set it back up. It’s the combination of that kind of humor going on during some fiery fingered piano playing that just blows my mind and makes him my favorite.

Then it was the bedtime of our last full day at sea. We’d wondered if the cruise would be too long and we’d be ready for it to be done before it was over. The answer is a resounding no. Tonight’s towel animal: Frog with tail? Maybe it’s another sea turtle.

Day 12 - Pool Party

We slept in until almost 8, which usually would be a problem because of needing to be in the dining room right when it opens at 8 so we can get breakfast before Zumba and so on. But it has finally happened that neither of us is even remotely interested in breakfast. There are always bananas in our cabin, and even that sounds like too much food. I think what may have put me over the edge was the plate of food at the wine tasting – even though when I saw it, I thought “urg, I don’t want to eat any more” I ate it anyway. I’m sure it wasn’t the chocolate crème brulee, which gave me the energy to be hoppin’ and boppin’ to the crocodile rock at the show last night. Since we didn’t have to go anywhere Dave tried dialing 25 to get an outside line again – with 1800 people trying to get one it was not an easy proposition – and on the 3rd try he got one, and got through to Alaska Airlines without much wait time. It was a bad news/good news kind of phone call – the bad news was that the flight we wanted was sold out in coach, the good news was that the cost to upgrade to first class was pretty tiny. So we’re going home first class, which means that we pay no bag fees, and also will make the transition to being regular people again a little easier. We both feel good about having that taken care of.

After I ate my banana I headed up to Lido aft for Zumba. Today they taped our class to send to headquarters in Seattle – maybe I’ll be on the next Holland America promotional video. Your lifestylist Louise said it was so they could see that Zumba is something that they should keep doing - and given that there are about 25-30 people there every day, it seems like a pretty obvious thing. I was pretty sweaty by the end as always, and grinning like an idiot. I’m starting to think my face might be permanently set in that expression. Down to the cabin to pick up my swimsuit, and then up to boot camp, which seems to get easier every day – I’m not sure what is up with that. Mark did the whole workout with us (usually he has Matt do the last bit) and I was pleased to see that he was just as sweaty as I was by the end. Susan was a little late getting there, and a little crabby when she did – she’d been caught behind some coots and couldn’t get around. Matthew says he’s never going to get old.

The best thing about today is there are no ship activities we want to participate until after dinner (well, lunch, of course). So after boot camp I got into my black bathing suit (it took quite some time to get it on over my sweaty body – I may have pulled a muscle in the process) and after a brief chat with Gus and Rita (he’d had a cough last night but is fine) spent almost a whole blissful hour in the pool. The seas are not calm, and I just was having a blast. You can roll around and surf off the ends and just go crazy. Like I said, that idiot grin is getting to be a permanent fixture on my face. Sometimes a few people get in, but I just wait them out. They opened the roof, so in addition to the crazy waves there was also wind whipping the swells into your face. At one point it even poured down rain for a couple minutes, then it went back to being sunny. My my my, it’s a wonderful cruise.

Out of the pool, quick shower, then off to lunch with mama and Merna. Mama had a really yummy looking cob salad that put her in a very good mood. It was nice to sit and chat. It was my first sitting still since 9 this morning, and I will admit to getting a little sleepy while we waited for food. It’s not a terrible problem to have.

After lunch I was a little chilly from swimming so I hung out in the cabin for a while with the heat turned up. I’ve got my suit drying out on the verandah, and soon it will be time to get back in the pool. I was thinking how if you always want what you’re getting, you’ll always get what you want, and since what I want is to get back in that pool I know I’m in for a good afternoon. And in fact it was a good afternoon. The pool was sloshing around. At one point I was in the deep end (6’9”) and I suddenly realized that I was standing on the bottom with my head completely above the water. Amazing! Unfortunately another couple was in the pool pretty much the whole time I was, which was annoying. Don’t they know it’s my pool? Anyway, it was lots of fun.

I got out of the pool around 3:30, spent a little while in the hot tub trying to warm up, and then took a long hot shower. I would have also taken a long nap, but I’d set up an appointment for a manicure. I remember on the Christmas cruise Sami my niece took advantage of everything the ship had to offer, and she had the best time of all of us. So this time I decided I’d ask myself, “What would Sami do”, and Sami would definitely have had the manicure. I’m not totally thrilled with the color I chose – it has too much green in it – but it was fun getting the manicure and having shiny nails.

Dinner was very, very good – I had lamb which was spectacular, and Dave had a chile relleno that was so good he actually asked for a second helping. Also it made me laugh when Dave ordered the chocolate cake and Putu knew he’d want ice cream with it. But the funniest thing that happened, and the thing that made me laugh so hard I completely lost it right there at the table, was just after dinner. Dave turned to me and said, “5… 4…” and I had no idea what he was doing until he got down to 1 and Michael the wine steward turned up RIGHT THEN to say, “port wine tonight, sir? Dave hadn’t even seen him when he started counting. We thought we’d miss Ya Ya, but Putu, Dewa and Michael have been terrific.

Another nice thing about tonight’s dinner was that Rita was really chatty, She’s the shyest of our table, and usually doesn’t say much. We’d shared a laugh last time Gus had French onion soup (he had a cheese-string moment that was very good), and tonight he had the same thing and we caught each others’ eyes and giggled. Gus travelled around for 14 years with a Suburban and a motor home staying mostly in national parks ending in 2002, but we don’t know what brought it on. He and Rita met at a dance after that, but he says “at that time I didn’t know how to dance, so I had to take lessons just to have a chance.” I love Gus and Rita, and John and Carol too. I think this is the best table on the ship.

After dinner you know what comes next – crows nest to see Chris. Turns out last night there’d been a mariner vip party up there. I guess we’re not VIP enough yet. We didn’t get to stay long as we had to be down in the queen’s lounge for Karaoke Superstars at 9. Karaoke superstars was pretty much the same people as the karaoke (except for the two ladies who sang “love shack”), except this time Dave your cruise director, Oosterdam singer Carrie, and the very funny Joel Mason were there as judges. DJ Brett was your MC and we were treated to many of his wonderful fits of the giggles. Like I said, it was pretty much the same people as last time, and in general the ones who had been good before were still good. We sat in the front row with Carol (John was in the contestant area) and Joel Mason’s wife ended up sitting next to her. I showed her the bruise on my hand that I got form excessive clapping at Joel’s show, which she thought was pretty funny. She didn’t know you could do that either. We don’t know her name so we have to call her Joel Mason’s wife.

Each contestant came up and sang, and then the panel discussed them. It was one of those times where everything is funny. John was a little less nervous, so he did better, but Carol said he probably should have had a shot of bourbon first. I’ve forgotten most of their names so it’s hard to tell the stories, and it was kind of a “you had to be there” show – like when it was a country western song and Dave pretended to hang himself with toilet paper because he doesn’t like country western, or when Steve, the eventual winner, was singing “I can’t help falling in love with you” to the two male judges, after introducing the song as a tribute to his wife, with whom he was celebrating their 20th anniversary that night. Or when Tyler came up and sang “Piano Man” so badly, so off-key and so off the beat that when the audience tried to join in to help none of us – not even Carrie or Joel, who make their livings as singers – could sing it correctly.

It got started late and ended a little late, but since Dave was the MC for the 10:00 show we got there in plenty of time and got seats down in front – we weren’t going to make the same mistake as last night! Turns out we would have been better off in the balcony – the show was just mediocre. It was Patrick Murray, a ventriloquist, with his dummy Matilda. The jokes were pretty much old and stale. The first section of the show was about cruising in Alaska, but we were in Hawaii. Anyway, it wasn’t really worth it, and I’m mostly putting it in the blog in case he shows up on another cruise we’re on so we’ll know to find something else to do. We lost another hour tonight, so it was bedtime for sure after the show. Tonight’s towel animal: stick penguin.

Day 11 - Coast Guard and Elton John

We’re headed back west towards Hawaii, but they didn’t bother to change the clocks since we won’t be getting off the ship. That meant that sunrise wasn’t until after 7, which meant that I didn’t wake up in time for stretch class. Oh well. We woke up pretty much wondering what was going to happen today, since last night all they told us was that we’d be heading back to Hawaii and the medical transfer would take place in the morning. We ate breakfast with Vic from Connecticut (originally from NYC) and LaVerne from Minnesota who had to explain that while they were eating breakfast together they were not a couple – they were on an elderhostel tripand were both singletons. They were good tablemates. Vic used to own a company that made actual Wall Street ticker tape, which was an interesting occupation. Vic said he’d heard that there were actually 3 people needing medevac, which turned out to be true. It was nice because they had a lecture to get to at 9, and I had Zumba at 9, so we all rushed off together.

Zumba was especially fun because she introduced a new song – a salsa. Suzy and I were in the back row being rowdy and having fun. Before the class started the captain came on the PA and explained what was going to happen, but it was completely unintelligible where we were standing. After zumba Dave came by and explained – they were starting the medevac at 10, and the whole front of the ship would be closed after 9:30, which meant no boot camp. The whole time we’d been doing the zumba class a coast guard airplane had been circling the ship.

At 10 the two coast guard helicopters showed up. We went as far forward as we could on deck 10 and watched them as long as we could. It was pretty impressive, given that the ship goes up and down and side to side and the wind was very gusty. The first patient got loaded up pretty quick, but the second took much longer. Then the helicopters flew the 100 miles to Hilo, and one of them came back for the third passenger. It was really something. While we were up there watching I was reminded of the eclipse cruises – everybody standing on deck, staring in the same direction and taking pictures. Bernie the cellarmaster was up there too. I asked him what wine he’d recommend with a medevac. He didn’t think it was funny.

We had some time before lunch, so I got my suit on and went to the pool midships. It is just a shade too cold for most people – you need to keep moving – so I had it all to myself again. I got about half an hour in and then it was already time to get ready to eat again. We met Mama and Merna in the explorer’s lounge and got a table for four so we could chat. Lunch was good as usual, and we enjoyed sharing a slice of coconut pie for dessert. As we were finishing up the captain came on with the announcement about the upcoming plan. Basically since we’d taken an entire day to go back the cruise had been extended by 24 hours – we’d be arriving in San Diego at 7 am on Sunday, rather than Saturday. In order to let passengers change reservations and notify folks, internet and phone service would be free until 10 pm on Thursday. They were very apologetic, but hoped we’d understand that the health of passengers had to take priority. ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? You’re giving us a free day at sea and free internet, and you’re apologizing? Well, Dave and I were doing the dance of joy.

After lunch we had a very busy afternoon planned. First on the agenda, human ring toss in the midships lido pool. Imagine our disappointment at finding out the humans were the post, not the rings. Your lifestylist Louise ad your DJ Brett were the posts, and boy did they complain about the water in the pool being cold. The ship was continuing to rock and roll, so they weren’t exactly stationary in the pool. Dave took a turn at throwing the rings and got one over Brett for 10 points, so he came in 3rd. Brett did some giggling, which made us happy.

We had about 20 minutes between the ring toss and the premium wine tasting, so I went over to the gym and did my stretches. I was a little crabby while I was doing them (something like a petulant 5 year old) because although I was sure the wine tasting would be fun what I really wanted to do was get back in the pool. Once we got to the Pinnacle Grill for the wine tasting I got in a better mood. We shared a table with a couple from Kansas and boot camp Suzy. Susan and Stephanie were there too. Mark had commented while I was doing my stretches that he was glad the wine tasting was today and not tomorrow, so people would come to his fitball class. There seems to be a tight correlation between the gym users and the wine tasters. We started with a Domaine Chandon sparkling wine (not bad), then moved to a premier cru Chablis (bleah! bleah! I did not like that wine!), a chateuneuf-de-pape that we’d had with dinner one night, not bad but too young, and a very nice Washington State merlot. We finished with a late bottle vintage port, which everyone at the table except Dave thought tasted exactly like cough syrup. They’d put together an interesting plate of things to try with the wine – lemon (huh?), smoked salmon, duck liver mousse, cold shrimp, marinated mushroom, crackers, and a brownie. The wines were mostly good, but Bernie talked too much - it took over an hour to taste the 5 wines, and he made many large generalizations. I’m not sure the wine tastings are something I’d do again.

We barely made it to the Queen’s lounge in time for the Indonesian crew show, so we didn’t have great seats – about halfway down on the balcony level, pretty far to one side. The crew shows are always a highlight – amateurish in the very best sense of the word. Usually they start with a dance, but the woman who usually does the dance got hurt during rehearsal, so instead we started with a traditional Indonesian love song, sung in English with a standard drum kit and electric guitars. We’re not sure what was traditional about it, but we did enjoy it. Then there was more singing, and then the thousand hand dance, performed by 9 people in 3 sets (one red, on blue, one yellow). The cute young woman on the left end never did quite get with the beat, and some of their big moves took a while to get everybody doing the right thing at the right time, but it was performed with such good humor and evident enjoyment that none of that mattered. The director of the show made a little speech about how they’d given up their rest time to practice and perform but they did it because they loved us – and we believed him. Once the show was out we headed out of the lounge. When we got into the hall Dave said, “quick! Let’s not get stuck behind the coots!” But it was too late… we were surrounded.

Between the show and dinner there was time for about an hour more of swimming. Tomorrow my plan is to get in after lunch and not get out until dinner. It really is like being in the ocean and I just love it. I was a little rushed getting ready for dinner, especially since the extra day at sea necessitated putting together another bag of laundry (there’s no do-it-yourself laundry on the ship). Once again we managed to cram an astonishing amount of the laundry into the tiny bag – the charge is by the bag, not by the piece. When we got to dinner everybody was there except Gus and Rita, who didn’t show up at all. We hope they are okay. We had a very fun dinner, although mama’s special order dinner didn’t come until very late, which was unusual and made her a little tense because she is a slow eater and she was afraid everybody would have to wait for her. I told her not to worry, we didn’t need to be off the ship until Sunday, and as it turned out it was an enjoyable leisurely dinner. And an exciting one for John, who has been asking every night if it was crème brulee night. It was, but it was chocolate, which disappointed him. But don’t worry John – Putu to the rescue! He had had a plain one made up special. He’d also brought an extra chocolate one, which we passed around the table and I ended up finishing, because my esterhazy was too sweet.

After dinner we grabbed the laptop and headed to the crows nest for some guitar, only to discover that it was closed (!) for a private party. This left us somewhat at loose ends… we’ve been with Chris every night. We ended up with the jazz band in the Neptune lounge. John and Carol were there, as well as Suzanne the German Lady with Amazing Fake Red Hair. She would be something of an object of ridicule, and in fact was at first, but she and her husband are far and away the best dancers on the ship, which pretty much shuts everybodys’ mouths. It is just amazing to watch them float around the dance floor. Dave isn’t crazy about the singer, but the music is tight and the dancing was amazing. They did play a cha-cha (Madonna’s “Like A Virgin”, if you can believe it) and John and Carol tried to get us up on the floor, but I was blogging too hard to dance. Dave didn’t seem too unhappy about it.

From 9 to 10 was western night in the Neptune lounge, and we made it until about 9:30 before we decided to head back to the room and put the laptop away. It was a happening place – much like Elvis night, it was standing room only – but it wasn’t really our kind of music. That was about to change. We’d been hearing about Joel Mason (billed as Holland America’s most requested performer) and his Elton John show, but we weren’t sure we were going to like it so we sat up in the balcony. Our first hint that this was going to be quite a ride was when we looked down and saw that the piano was chained to the floor. Yes. The show got started late, but when the lights came up and he and the piano rose up from the pit where the stage had opened up, it was all rock and roll from there. The room was more full than usual and he totally got the crowd on its metaphorical feet. The HALcats were backing him and the bass player was hopping around through the whole show. It’s hard to describe everything that happened – it was a great combination of many of my favorite songs plus very funny banter. We clapped and yelled so much that our hands are bruised and our throats are sore. Apparently he’s going to do another show and you can bet this time we’ll be in the front row. Well, maybe the second row. We’re still us, after all.

After the show the cruise director came on and gave us an update on the 3 passengers – one had been having kidney trouble, one with internal bleeding, one with heart trouble. They all made it safely to the hospital on Hilo and were all in stable condition. We were all pleased to hear it. Meanwhile, the phone lines are still busy, so we’ll keep trying to get through to Alaska Airlines to change our ticket. But as far as I’m concerned, this cruise could go on forever. Tonight’s towel animal: bunny

Day 10 - change of plans

Yay, we’re back at sea! We’re having pretty good wind and waves – the ship is rocking & rolling pretty good, which is what we like. Now that we’re back at sea I’m also changing back to my previous fitness schedule – breakfast at 8, zumba at 9 for half an hour, short break, boot camp at 10. It’s only me and Susan in boot camp, which is fine – we ran into Suzy last night and she said she wasn’t going to do it again – “I don’t need a guy half my age yelling at me”. Our breakfast partners this morning were a delightful couple from Virginia who had travelled all over & who know a ziplIne designer, so that was fun to talk about. We ordered breakfast at about 8:15, and the woman (we never got her name, but if you’ve ever seen the Garfield holiday specials, she was a dead ringer for Jon Arbuckle’s grandma) ordered papaya, if they had any, but not to get it if it was too much trouble. “Yes,” I joked, “don’t turn the ship around to go back and get some.”

After boot camp I showered up in the gym, which was nice – the showers are nice and bright, unlike the one in our cabin which has a very dark shower curtain. Unfortunately the hairdryer up there is useless, so that was too bad. Once I was clean and dry I headed down to the Queen’s lounge to meet Dave and see the Hawaiian cooking demo. The problem is that even though chef Pablo is an engaging teacher, sitting in a gently rocking comfortable chair after an half hour of intense exercise and a nice shower has a very predictable effect – I was awake for the mango salsa, the marinade, and the poke dip, (and the sample of the meat & poke) but pretty much slept through the chicken kabobs.

While we were in the cabin between the cooking demo and lunch the captain came on over the cabin speakers. This is unusual –generally the announcements are only piped into the public areas of the ship (and, of course, over channel 40 – nerd TV). Oh, and speaking of nerd TV, they finally put scale markers on the position displays. Anyway, my first thought (of course) was that the ship was in trouble and we’d have to get in the lifeboats. This, fortunately, turned out not to be true, but the real reason was pretty dire. Apparently a passenger was having a serious medical emergency, and about the time I was joking about not turning the ship around, the captain had been turning the ship around and heading back to Hawaii to get her to better medical attention. But then she apparently stabilized, and they decided not to head back. The captain’s announcement was really confusing, and about half the passengers still thought we were going to Hawaii (apparently they don’t watch channel 40). So at lunch the captain came on again and clarified that we were in fact not going back to Hawaii (which would at that point have delayed our arrival into San Diego until 4 pm on Saturday), and then the cruise director got on and said again that we were not going back.

Anyway, we had a nice lunch just the 4 of us, and then went as far forward as we could on the promenade deck and watched the bow of the ship throw 2 and 3 story waves into the air. We wanted to go hang out on the deck in front of the gym because when it’s windy that’s a fun place to be. Apparently there’s a limit to how much fun HAL wants you to have, because the door was locked with a note about high winds. So we went up to deck 10 instead, which was almost as good. Then we came back to the room and I had a nap while Dave wrote and read on the verandah.

Once I woke up I sat on the verandah for a while. Dave went to show the pictures he’s taken (like 800!) to Mama and Merna. Since we were still rocking and rolling I thought it might be fun to go hang out in the pool. It took a little while to convince myself get in – the midships pool isn’t cold by any definition, but it’s not warm either. But once I got in it was totally excellent – triple excellent! It was like having your own wave pool, or being in the ocean with no chance of FEET. The water was rolling back and forth and side to side – it would change height by 2-3 feet as it rolled front to back. The pool was empty except for me, so I could swim around without worrying about bumping into anybody. I hope the weather is even rougher tomorrow! Although not too rough – I assume at some point they’ll close the pool if it gets to where it would be too much fun, I mean too dangerous.

Then down to the cabin for another shower and to dress for dinner. It’s Halloween, but not many people are dressed up – it’s a lot to pack clothes for a two week cruise and a costume. Your lifestylist Louise is doing her best to stir up the Halloween spirit – she’s been dressed as a bumblebee since lunch. We’ll see what kind of costumes show up at dinner. I do have my pumpkin earrings and pumpkin vest. Dave and I should have gone into the Walmart in Hilo and gotten costumes. Oh well. At our table John was wearing his black gangster gear, Carol had as nice flapper outfit with her granddaughter’s too small headband and awesome dangly crystal skeleton earrings. Nobody else was dressed up, although with our table where it is we did see many costumes go by. One thing I noticed is that many people were clever – they brought a mask or a pair of cat ears or something small that you could put on and have it be a costume. Dinner for most of the table was broiled lobster tail. John, Rita and I had seconds.

After dinner we had some more verandah time. It had been partly cloudy all day, but things had cleared out and we could see the Jupiter off the front of the ship (this is important) and the moon to the west and behind. We came in and tamed our hair, then headed up to see if they’d taken the sign off the door to get out on deck 9. They hadn’t, so we headed up to the crows nest to do our usual listening to Chris. Tonight our invisibility shield was not working at all, and the bartender immediately came over and even remembered that we always have a club soda with lime. We settled in to listen to, and I looked out the front and was surprised to see that I could see Jupiter, even through all the reflected glare on the windows (this is important). Chris was wearing a Captain America mask that completely cut off his peripheral vision, and a captain America shield that cut off his circulation, and the ship was rocking and lurching so much that he was afraid of smashing his teeth on the microphone, but it was still an enjoyable set.

When he took his break it was time for us to change the channel, and we decided to call it an early night. We stopped at the paper compass, which we always do, even though through the long days at sea it doesn’t change. Well, it said we were heading southwest – that is, back towards Hawaii. We were very disappointed that it had stopped working… until we got back to our cabin and looked at nerd TV. We had in fact turned around, and as I write this we are heading back to Hawaii. Jupiter is now behind us, and the moon in front, and the ship’s ride has smoothed out considerably now we’re not heading in to the wind. We’re 12 hours (about 200 land miles) out from where they turned the ship around last time, which means that if we go all the way back we won’t get to San Diego until Sunday at the earliest. The captain hasn’t made an announcement yet, but we’re planning to head over to the show at 10 – Dave the cruise director usually makes some announcements before the show, so we’re going to go and see what he has to say.

Just before the show the captain came on and told us pretty much what we already knew – the passenger’s health had taken a turn for the worse and we are headed back for Hawaii. They don’t know exactly when or how the medevac will take place, but it will be some time tomorrow morning. Dave the cruise director didn’t have any more information than that, but it looks like we get an extra day at sea. We didn’t stay for the show. Tonight’s towel animal: sea turtle. We’d stopped at the front office to ask about the free bridge tour (doesn’t exist anymore) and they had a book of towel animals which we looked through. Otherwise we might not have known.

Another note: everybody knows the name of the humuhumu nuku nuku apua’a, but my personal favorite Hawaiian fish name is the longnose butterflyfish: lau-wiliwili-nukunuku-oioi

Day 9 - last day in Hawaii

Our last port day, again, a bittersweet thing. I woke up very early and went out to sit on the verandah. I was in time to see something very bright just setting in the west – Venus? (Editor’s note: no, Jupiter) And we were passing by an island that is a shield volcano –Molokai (editor’s note: yes). I was glad to be up early because I found out yesterday that Dave has been posting his own blog (I knew he was writing, but I didn’t know he was posting) and I wanted to read it so I could find out what we’ve been doing. One thing he mentioned that I haven’t is the invisibility cloak that we have up in the crows nest at night. Even if we say hi to the bartender, as we did tonight, they don’t seem to be able to see us once we sit down at our usual table. Eventually someone will sit down at a table near us and they’ll realize we’re here. Perhaps Dave’s nightly club soda isn’t enough to entice them over here. One night they lost us between the time of taking the order and bringing it over.

Anyway, Dave came out and we sat on the verandah for a while. I headed up for breakfast in the lido (sliced almonds for the oatmeal – yum!) and stretch and abs classes with Mark. When I got back down to the room we had a half hour or so before we were supposed to go to the vista lounge. Three notes here: 1. This is the MS Oosterdam’s first time here in Hawaii. 2. This port (Lahaina, Maui) is too shallow for the MS Oosterdam, so we needed to take tenders to get ashore and 3. We discovered a couple days ago that neither Dave nor I really wanted to do the snorkel expedition – we had each put it on our list because we thought the other really liked it. Number 3 goes to show that it’s important to tell the truth about what you want, even when you’re making shore excursion lists.

Numbers 1 and 2 combined to make a shipload of unhappy passengers for Holland America. The tender procedures had been explained very well to the passengers – passengers with HAL booked tours would go to the vista lounge; passengers without shore excursions would go to the Queen’s lounge and get tender tickets. Unfortunately nobody told the young crewmember in the Queen’s lounge, so she just started sending folks down to the tender loading area. Usually they send the folks with tours out first, but by the time they were ready to do that the gangway was completely clogged with angry passengers. Remember that there are 1,800 passengers, each tender holds 80, and they can only load two tenders at a time. Also some of the elderlies take a long time to load, as both the ship & tender are moving. So we ended up sitting in the vista lounge for about half an hour, and by the time we got down to the tender loading area Nigel, the officer in charge, had been berated for almost twice that long by angry passengers. We told him we hadn’t minded waiting in the lounge, as it was quite comfortable. He seemed very thankful for a kind word.

We sat with a nice couple from Alabama in the front row of the tender on the way to shore. The front window was open and a pleasant breeze was blowing in. Imagine our surprise when a big wave came in too! Our seatmates got it pretty good. This is their first cruise and they were having a super time. We enjoyed chatting with them about their tradition of taking each grandchild on a special trip when the grandchild turns 16. Their story of taking their granddaughter to New York, and the chat they had beforehand about how she was to enjoy it and not have any attitude or sulkiness made us laugh.

We got to the harbor and transferred over to our catamaran. It turned out to be a very well run, very fun expedition. I especially liked that as soon as we got on board they were offering free soft drinks and water – usually they charge for that stuff. They kept feeding us throughout the day – banana bread, fresh fruit, sandwiches. It makes a huge difference. The cat was comfortable and it wasn’t far at all to where we were going, an old pier that had been damaged in the last hurricane, leaving lots of slabs and pilings for coral to grow on and fish to hide in. We hopped in and snorkeled around for a couple hours. Many turtles, lots of different fishes. One I’d not seen before was the cornet or trumpet fish (Hawaiian name: nunu), a long tubelike fist with giant eyes. I probably would have stayed in all day, but eventually they blew the horn to bring us in. At that point they put up the sails and we cruised around for an hour or so. This was my cue to stretch out on the trampoline and take and excellent nap. Unfortunately and inexplicably I hadn’t put sunscreen on my legs, so between the backs of my legs which were pointing up while I snorkeled and the fronts which were up while I was napping I am a little lobster colored on the bottom half.

We got back to the ship at about 2:30, and I had set up a second massage at 3 so I headed on up there. We got some sad news – the 7 course meal prepared in front of us by the executive chef and paired with wines selected by cellarmaster Bernie that was supposed to be tonight had been cancelled due to lack of interest. I say we would have been interested enough to make up for it, but apparently that wasn’t good enough. I was disappointed, but Dave was really, really disappointed. The pinnacle grill hasn’t been doing a very good business either – the prevailing attitude seems to be that we’ve already paid for the food in the dining room, so why would we pay again? Well, there it is. Leaving Dave to deal with his disappointment I headed up to the spa, where I discovered that most of the muscles Mark had unknotted had stayed unknotted, so in general the massage was more relaxing this time. But between the sunburn, the slightly chilly massage room, and the complete state of relaxation I’d achieved I had gotten quite chilly. I stopped at the Lido and got some hot tea and sat out on the back in the sun to drink it, but I was still pretty cold.

Apparently we missed the announcement that they’d moved the time for the last tender to 5:00 instead of 4:00, because we were amazed to see the tenders still zipping back and forth well after 5. I think the whole tender thing didn’t go quite as smoothly as they would have liked, and I’m mildly curious about how they might change things. While we were watching the tenders Dave noticed a fish swimming by the ship – I think it was a nunu, but it was a big one, maybe 4 feet long? We watched it swim back and forth for a while, then suddenly it gave a great lunging leap and next time we saw it it had a fish crosswise in its mouth. It took a while for it to get the fish turned around so it could go down lengthwise. It was like Mutual of Omaha’s wild kingdom right there by the ship. We didn’t see the last tenders come in or get hauled up, because we needed to head to the dining room. We had a nice dinner as always, although for the first time I ordered a fish that wasn’t spectacular – a pepper crusted swai that was perfectly cooked but not really to my taste. Dave’s Legolamb was very good, though, and he was kind (and full) enough to give me one of the slices. I made up for my disappointing dinner by ordering two desserts, a german chocolate cake with a super super chocolate frosting (which I scraped off and ate, leaving most of the cake behind – backwards from my usual preferred cake eating form) and an absolutely delightful espresso-date sticky pudding, which was more like a gooey cake and was quite possibly the best dessert I’ve had aboard ship. Boot camp and zumba start up again tomorrow, so payback is coming.

We really like going up to the crow’s nest after dinner, but I also like doing my blog then, so tonight I compromised by taking the laptop up with us. I am really enjoying typing and swaying to the music- I think this may be a new tradition. Dave says my typing is not too distracting, although I notice that I’m not doing so well because I keep trying to type to the beat. Here’s something I want to remember: he played a song with the lyric ”my my my it’s a beautiful world” by Colin Hay, former lead singer for Men without Hats, that I like very much. We stayed with Chris until his 9:00 break, and then headed down to the Queen’s lounge for Vivienne and the HALcats doing 50s & 60s favorites. “You know what I love about 50s & 60s night?” she asked. “All the songs were written in the 50s and 60s.” well, there’s no arguing with that. The HALcats were swinging pretty good, and my favorite dancer, the barefoot lady in red, was there, although she was wearing a black dress and shoes tonight. The dancing was pretty terrific and Vivienne wasn’t as flat as she sometimes is, so it was very good.

When they took their break we headed to the vista lounge for the Chris Alpine, the comedian. You may have noticed that we’re much like fickle TV viewers - when they go to a break we change the channel. Both in the crows nest and in the vista lounge, which are all the way forward on the ship, you can tell that the seas are a little rougher. Like the Veendam, the Oosterdam has what I call a bow nose – a bulbous protuberance just at the water line. I’m not sure what it’s for, but in rougher seas when it hits a wave just wrong the whole ship shakes – Chris-the-guitar player said we’d hit a whale. If that were true, we’d be leaving quite a line of bruised whales behind us. You can feel it through the whole ship, but it’s especially noticeable in the forward lounges.

Anyway, we decided to sit downstairs for the comedian. The late show is usually sparsely attended, and sometimes in the balcony it can be hard to feel the energy of the performance. Before the comedian started we found out more from Dave the 12 year old cruise director about what went wrong with the tendering. In addition to the young crewmember sending too many people down to the tender boarding area, the harbormaster in Maui was only allowing 1 tender to dock at a time. Apparently several ships officers went over and spoke with her, and convinced her that two tenders was a bare minimum. Anyway, we sat in the back row of the floor section, which Chris-the-comedian says are the people who want to be close to the action but not part of it. Bingo! He had many funny bits, and had more interaction with the audience than most. He did do the airplane seatbelt joke, which is wearing thin, especially since he messed it up – the whole point of doing it is that the release mechanism is different from the one on your car. A particular favorite joke of mine was how you could tell how old a man was by how high his pants were – sort of like counting the rings on a tree. Now that we’re heading east they’re taking away the hours they gave us, so it was midnight by the time we got to bed. Tonight’s towel animal: Gorilla.

Day 8 - zipline in Kauai

Up early for breakfast on the Lido and stretch class while we came into the harbor at Kauai. I’ve never been here before and it is visually gorgeous. Steep green cliffs coming down into the blue harbor. Kauai is where most of the moves get made and it is easy to see why. Another nice thing this morning was a hi there from Josh on Facebook. Love having the clear spot wireless.

Our tour today was called the zipline trek iki mua, and like all zipline shore excursions we had no idea what to expect. The information said to bring windbreakers and towels and waterproof cameras. Should we wear bathing suits, bring dry clothes? It was unclear. We decided to leave the windbreakers at home, but bring towels and cameras, although neither of ours are waterproof. We’d also talked last night and decided this trip would probably be something of a letdown. We had the most unbelievable time in Mexico when we were there, and there was no way this could measure up – that one had boats and unimogs and burros and a 50 meter rappel from a platform suspended from a tree. The important thing, we decided, was not to do any comparing in a way that would irritate each other – or the other passengers.

So with our expectations well set, we walked down the gangway (gang way! gang way!) and found the sign for our tour, where we got the first pleasant surprise – there would only be 12 of us. Our guide Dina took us out to the van, where we each got a cooler bag with drinks and cookies. We had 5 couples and two singletons, who were made into a couple by being given a single cooler bag to share. (Interestingly, when we finished the excursion they walked back to the ship together – zipline romance?) I stuffed my purse into our cooler bag as well. We left the dock and stopped and picked up our other guide Cory, then headed into the caldera. The drive was just spectacularly pretty. On the way to Kipu ranch, a private cattle ranch owned by the Rice family, we all introduced ourselves and said where we were from. We found we had 2 women named Ronda who both spelled their name without the ‘h’, which caused them both to squeal in delighted amazement. Paula and Parker from Austin were sitting behind us, and it was Paula’s 60th birthday. She asked us not to sing.

We got to the ranch and Cory jumped out to unlock and lock the gates. At that point we were on a dirt road and I was reminded of our tourguide Kana from Hilo’s joke about hula lessons – when we went over a bump he called it hula lessons because all our bodies swayed in unison. We got some good hula today, especially when Cory drove on the way back. Anyway, this is a very different outfit than the Puerta Vallarta adventure place we went to in Mexico, which was large and had a huge compound in the jungle. Dina pulled off onto the side of the road and she and Cory put on our gear. Oh, it was good to hear the clinking of the zipline harness again! I love how they clip your own zipline rope on and then just snap you on and off the lines. We walked a short way through the forest and got rained on a little, which just felt refreshing. When we got to the first zipline Cory did the briefing, and he started by saying, “it’s very important that you listen very carefully to what I’m going to tell you, because I am about to push you off a cliff.” As attention focusing statements go, I have to say that one is right up there. It was a fairly standard briefing and then one at a time he pushed us off a cliff.

In Mexico we’d worn gloves and could use them to slow ourselves down; nothing like that here – you jump off the edge of the platform and go however fast gravity takes you, and facing whatever direction you ended up facing. I have to admit my heart was beating a little faster when it was my turn. But as soon as I felt the harness holding me up and the wind rushing past my face it was all good. One of the reviewers of this excursion had complained that there were only 3 lines, and you did two of them twice, but I loved doing them twice. We walked back up to the top, got clipped on, and jumped again. I could have done it forever. The second time you went off the platform backwards, to prepare you for the Zippel. It was excellent. Because there were only the two guides doing the clipping and unclipping there was plenty of time in between to take pictures and chat. Next we walked over to the zippel, a combination zipline/rappel that was fun but I’d rather have done a straight zip or rappel. It took longer because you had to rappel down a flight of stairs – which is just as awkward as it sounds – so we had plenty of time at the bottom to hang out on a platform built around a giant banyan tree and watch each other. And drink our drinks and eat our cookies.

Last line is the tandem line, where you are encouraged to go upside down. We did that one twice too, which was good because I didn’t figure out how to go upside down the first time. On this one you fly across the river and appear to be about to crash into a tree, but then you get stopped and you fly back halfway across the river again, and then they stop you and you climb down a ladder to get down. Then you go across two awesome bouncy suspension bridges (the second time I made Dave go first and waited until he was off so I could bounce and swing the bridge to my heart’s content). The second time we did the tandem zip Dave went on the line that gets unclipped first. I’d figured out how to go upside down this time, so I did some of it with my legs wrapped around the rope and my head hanging down. While I was waiting to be unclipped I was hanging upside down and Cory was pulling on the top of the line so I was bouncing up and down. It was excellent.

Unfortunately it was also over, so we headed up the trail to the van. One thing is that nothing bonds a group of people like fear, so we were all talking and laughing on the way back to the van and while we got out of our gear. Dina asked Cory if he’d like to drive back, but I’m not sure she’ll ever do that again – it was some serious van hula. Just one more moment of terror to put the cap on a perfect trip. So no, in many ways the adventure wasn’t as good as Mexico. In others – the small size of the group, the more casual attitude of the guides, getting to do some lines twice – it was as good or better.

We got back to the ship around 11:30 and hung out in the room until lunchtime. We ended up at a table for four with Duncan, who will be 94 the day after tomorrow, and his wife Julia. Duncan has no short term memory at all – and not much long term memory either – and is Julia’s second husband. They turned out to be absolutely a blast – Duncan treating his inability to remember with great good humor and Julia taking cheerful care of him while chatting up a storm. I have to admit my heart sank a little as we were led to their table – they looked and sounded old – but they were more fun than many of the younger couples we’ve sat with. I particularly enjoyed the part where Duncan wanted coffee ice cream but Julia kept telling him he’d already ordered cappuccino. Well, you had to be there.

After lunch we got off the ship and walked over to Nawiliwili park. It turns out the park is at the ned of a long pier, so we walked out to the end of the pier, which was full of Hawaiians fishing and having a good time. While we were there a giant tour bus pulled up – apparently it is where the tours go when they get back a few minutes early, since if they just came back to the ship early there would be much complaining. Dave and I had gone to the end of the pier to take a picture of the ship when there came Mama – it was her tour bus! They had gone on the Canyon tour. We got a nice picture of her and me and Merna in front of the ship.

They got back on the bus and we walked off the pier towards the beach. There were many surfers in the cove – both regular and stand-up board surfers. The stand up boards are bigger than regular surf boards and (as you might have guessed) they stand on them rather than lying on them when they’re heading out to catch a wave – they have a paddle that they use to move themselves. I can’t decide if it looks easier or harder than regular surfing. We also saw something I’d never seem before – a little hiobie cat sailboat came into the cove and caught a wave too! It surfed the wave almost all the way into the beach, it practically looked like it was flying. Very cool. At that point we’d had about enough sitting on the wall , so we walked past the park to the Anchor Cove Stores, full of more Hawaiian schlock. Well, it was higher quality than what we saw in Honolulu last night, and we did find a little something for Tim at the ubiquitous ABC store. Then we walked back to the ship. The rain that had cooled us nicely on the shore excursion had completely cleared, and when there was no breeze it was pretty warm.

It looked from the dock as if our verandah would be in full sun, but when we got up to the room it turned out it was mostly in the shade. We sat out there for a while, but eventually I got tired of hunting for the cursor in the bright sunshine and moved into the climate-and-light controlled room. After an hour or so of typing I decided it was time to go to the gym, so I suited up in my halter top bathing suit with the men’s swim trunks and went and did a boot camp workout. Afterwards I was all hot and sweaty and as I passed the midship pool on the lido deck I thought wow, that would feel really good. I got in, and it did feel really good. I swam around and was enjoying myself very much, which is how I caught Dave sneaking over to the taco bar.

By the time I’d gotten showered and dressed we were already pulling out of the harbor, which was too bad because I really like watching us pull out of port. We did get a good look at the mystery ship we’d been seeing at anchor out by the breakwater, but a close up look didn’t leave us any more enlightened than we had been peering at it from various places on the ship and shore. It looked like a giant canoe with an outrigger on either side and a giant blue folding lawn chair in the center. Or something.

Then it was time for dinner, although we stopped at our cabin on the way and may have seen a whale spouting. Dinner was fun as usual – our tablemate from last night wanted to come join our table but we were full tonight. John and Carol had gone on the other zipline adventure, and although Carol had been very nervous about whether it would be too strenuous they had a great time. We shared shore excursion stories and Rita and I had a good laugh at Gus fighting with a long cheese strand from his French onion soup. We were all pretty tired, though – Carol in particular looked like she needed the reclining chair.

After dinner we went down to the cabin and stepped out onto the verandah to see a beautiful crescent moon. It seemed a little windy, so we decided to put on warmer clothes and head topside to see what we could see. We could see a lot – it was beautifully clear. But it was also very, very windy, with an apparent wind speed of over 40 knots! That’s windy enough so that in the front of the ship you could lean way into it and not fall down. It’s windy enough that my hair got completely snarled. And it was windy enough to give me a total fit of the giggles. Also we were watching the lights on the waves when I saw one that didn’t look like the others. It turned out to be some sort of large white bird, apparently able to keep pace with the ships’s 11 knot forward speed. We watched it for a while trying to figure out what it was up to – we’re probably 50 or more miles from land at this point. Maybe it was in training for some sort of bird marathon?

After going back to the cabin to detangle, we went to the crow’s nest for some guitar time with Chris, who is from the south and seems to be a little homesick – many songs both yesterday and today about various points in the south. It was really nice up there, although the ship is rolling and shuddering quite a bit because of the wind. But it was a long day and I was having a hard time staying awake. Tonight’s show was Bernie Fields, virtuoso harmonica player (!) with the HALcats. We went to the 10:00 show and the HALcats were tight, really swinging, but a harmonica is a harmonica, and when it’s miked and amplified it sounds… well, I thought it sounded awful. Dave liked it, but I was alternating between falling asleep and sticking my fingers in my ears, so I left a little early.

Before I reveal tonight’s towel animal I need to mention that our room steward has also been showing his artistic ability in the folding of the toilet paper into a point. The first night it was a very basic fold, which I amused myself by replicating before we left the room. He seemed to take this as a challenge, and has been showing his flexibility and versatility as a virtuoso toilet-paper-point folder. I haven’t had this much fun with a roll of TP since Dave’s dad and I would have the silent but intense struggle over which way it should come off the roll – over or under. Tonight’s towel animal: muscular goose. We think.