Day 4 - also still at sea!

Up at 6 after 8 hours of sleep, and out to the veranda to do some blogging. It’s much warmer, although still very cloudy and a little more humid than I’d like. It’s till cool enough that the terrycloth HAL bathrobe is a nice touch, but if it keeps getting warmer at the same rate I might not want it tomorrow.

After a pleasant slow morning on the verandah it was time to hop to it. We headed down to breakfast a little early in the hopes of getting the food a little faster. We ended up at a table for 6 with two other couples, one of whom had a timeshare in Mexico. After spending the first 20 minutes telling us how Mexico was a war zone, and going in to some detail about the local sheriff and the well organized and equipped cartels, he moved into another 20 minutes of his career in the military. It’s the first time on this cruise we’ve been seated with someone I hope to never be seated with again.

I did get my oatmeal in time to eat it in a leisurely fashion, then it was off to Zumba. The class was about twice as big as it was last time, and all the dancing tablemates were there. It had completely cleared up and was nice and sunny – maybe a bit too warm. I was planning to take it easy and use it as a gentle warmup for boot camp, but once the music started all that went out the window and I just had fun. I sure do enjoy Zumba.

I wasn’t sure what to do in the half hour between Zumba and boot camp. I ended up hanging out in the crow’s nest, just watching the world go by. The explorations café was very crowded with people using the computers and doing Sudoku and crossword puzzles. It was a pleasant interlude. Then I headed down to the gym to stretch a little before class. Susan came not long after, but Stephanie was not coming – she wanted to not be all sweaty for the Mariner’s lunch at 11. We were not going to be able to go to the Mariner’s lunch, and I figured they could deal with me being all sweaty at the cooking demo. Susie was late as usual. Susan and I got our weights and went and sat on our mats and asked each other the boot camp question – is there any part of you that doesn’t hurt? Today we were pretty much down to our fingers and toes. But surprisingly, class was easier than yesterday, and we made it through with flying colors. After the first set of 16 reps of the 4 exercises Susie and Susan collapsed on their mats and just lay there like noodles – it made me laugh and laugh.

Once class was over – I had to skip the stretching – it was rush rush down 4 flights of stairs and all the way to the other end of the ship for my shower, then rush rush down 3 more flights of stairs and back to the front of the ship for Culinary class. But when we got there we discovered that they had accidentally double-booked the room – the “super Mariners”, guests with over 200 cruise days with Holland America (200! Can you imagine?) were having their party. They finally moved them out, since we needed the stoves and ovens, and we went in to wait around for awhile. Eventually JC and our chef Tournant, Pablo, appeared. Unfortunately there was not electricity for the kitchen area, but we started on the chopping and stuff anyway.

At first I found the class a little frustrating, because the chef would come and say very fast what he wanted and then disappear, and then the other class members would do it wrong. I finally figured out to just back off and watch Pablo teach, and it was a very enjoyable time. We made creamy 5 onion soup, steak Diane, and bread pudding. There was lots of tasting and Chef Pablo is very entertaining. Eventually we finished making the food and then went and ate it in the Pinnacle Grill.

I had a break after that, which was nice – went down to the cabin and did some writing on the Verandah, and then took a nice hot bath before my massage. Mark, the merciless boot camp instructor, is also a physical therapist & had suggested a massage. Since at this point I could hardly walk or get in and out of chairs it seemed like a good idea. Oh man was it a good idea. It was an hour and a half and while some of it was the kind of painful deep tissue massage, I have not felt so good in years. I did point out that Mark has quite a self-perpetuating money maker going – first we pay him money to make us hurt in boot camp, then we pay him money to make it better with a massage. Now I am addicted and want to have one every day, but I’d have to win a lot more bingo.

After massage it was time to join our friends at table 7. I really do enjoy our tablemates this cruise, which makes dinnertimes something of a highlight. Tonight the talk of the table was that John was going to do some karaoke in the Queen’s lounge at 9, so we made that our one “to-do” of the evening. But the first thing to do after dinner was to take advantage of the clear skies! It was our first night where we could see the stars, and it is always fun to see them from a different perspective – for example, we’re far enough south that the big dipper was invisible in the haze just above the horizon. We walked all over the ship looking for some good places to see the sky, and always the most fun part was watching Dave excitedly finding old and new friends in the sky. He spent quite some time figuring out what a very bright reddish-yellow star was and we both felt the thrill of victory when he identified it as Capella.

First musical stop, of course, was the crow’s nest with Chris for 45 minutes of guitar and laughs. Next up, down to the Queen’s lounge. Our usual seats were taken, so we took the seats next to them, but if we’d had any idea what was coming next we would have sat in the front row! We got there just as John was starting his song, and while he didn’t knock our socks off he has a very pleasant voice and was fun to listen to. Our DJ Brett was the host, and he was very good – managing to make fun of the folks in a way that helped them to relax and helped the audience to have a great time. He’d introduce each performer by saying, “Let’s give a big hand to so-and-so, singing one of my favorite songs…” By the end of the night we’d all say “one of my favorite songs” together. After each person sang he’d say. “So, how did so-and-so do” and we’d all yell faaaaaaantastic! (Even if they didn’t). There were some hits and misses (as Brett said, it’s scary to get up and sing in front of a bunch of people you’ll never see again), but overall it was a hugely good time. Personal favorites of mine were the two women who sang the B-52’s Love Shack with much attitude and giggling, Mark who sang Magic Carpet ride and used his mane of silver hair to good advantage, and Joe, who actually was great to listen to and sang the song that goes “you’re sixteen, you’re beautiful, and you’re mine”. There was a moment where the lyrics, combined with his apparent age of over 60, combined in a slightly creepy way, but we got over it. We’ve never gone to karaoke night before and we’re grateful to John for introducing us to it.

We’ve been promising ourselves we’d try out the piano bar, despite a bad experience the first day of walking by and hearing the singer not sounding very good. So after karaoke we went over there, where we sat by Boot Camp Susie. It was fun singing along and John the piano man played some nice instrumental pieces he’d written himself, but it didn’t really push my button. We’ll give it another try sometime. When he decided to take a break, he decided to call it a night. Tonight’s towel animal: peacock.