Today started out with a brilliant sunrise and when I opened the balcony door – warmth! Oh this is wonderful! I sat on the balcony and watched the sun rise without needing any extra blankets – just my pj’s were good enough! Soon the lump in the bed also arose and we enjoyed breakfast in the room, which today as promised, I remembered to take a picture of! The breakfast included the following:
Bottom right going counter clockwise – vegetable frittata with GF hash brown, fruit bowl, cottage cheese, GF muffins (2), milk, juices (2), coffee, toast and fruit plate for Andrew. All was delicious! Andrew then moved onto the balcony to enjoy his coffee while I prepared to get to my first art activity of the day – Origami Folding – today is an Envelope! Then it will be Doodling, and Calligraphy before lunch.
After lunch, which was another bowl of soup and bagel with cheese for me, I went back to the Art Studio for some more entertaining classes! My goal this time was to complete some art work on the projects that I had already started rather thank start more projects. I did not bring any coloured pencils or pens with me on this trip and they have coloured pens in these classes so I can borrow them when in class to complete the items I am creating! This afternoon it was Origami Envelopes again, Doodling and then Crochet. I sat next to a lovely lady from Bainbridge Island, which is near Seattle, and she is a marine biologist who volunteers at the Seattle Aquarium. She told me about the Holland America program that she participates in that allows her to choose cruises each year in which to “standby” for and she pays $99 US a day if she gets onto the ship. That is actually a pretty good deal! She told me she signed up for 3 cruises this year – one to Alaska, one to Hawaii and this one and made it onto all of them at the last minute! On this cruise she is in a very small (as she is traveling alone) inside cabin, however she is really looking forward to examining both the beaches and snorkeling in our various destinations! When she went to Hawaii, she actually took her microscope on board in her roll-aboard just so she could look at the sides of some of the creatures that she found when out snorkeling on the various Hawaiian islands. I asked if she had been to Hanauma Bay near Diamond Head and like me, she had been there when it was a gravel parking lot and the truck pulled the carriages down to the beach and back up and dislikes the “tourist attraction” that it now has become where you need an appointment time to go visit the beach and pay admission!
Now that I have had a full day of creativity, I joined Andrew back in the stateroom where he was keeping tabs on all the sports scores, mainly the Blue Jays and Mariners games which had been taking place while we have been at sea. It seems that the Blue Jays have done to the Mariners (won two games in Seattle) which the Mariners did to the Blue Jays in Toronto – winning two games in the Centre of the Universe! Game 5 tomorrow should be interesting!
Off to dinner we then went – which I was looking forward to as on the menu the night before I had ordered Eggplant Cannelloni with Asparagus Risotto. It was labeled both gluten free and vegetarian which confused me as cannelloni is normally pasta! I am not aware of any cannelloni sized pasta tubes but hey, this is Holland America and they have surprised me at meals before!
Now, I had to calculate this statistic at dinner. After 105 days at sea on mainly Holland America and some Royal Caribbean Cruises, I have now had my best meal at sea. The Eggplant Cannelloni dinner was beyond awesome! It the eggplant which formed the rolls around the cheese was thin and easy to consume, the cheese filling was beyond believe and then it was delicately placed on top of an asparagus risotto that alone was scrumptious! The red sauce was also very flavourful and helped it all meld together nicely. I wish I had eaten slower – this dish was unbelievably tasty! Poor Andrew was left behind finishing his very nice looking Barramundi fish dinner as my dinner was gone in a flash it was so good! The only downside of having Celiac Disease is there are no second helpings! These meals are made in the allergy kitchen and are a one off….
To finish, I had a no sugar vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce (no sugar chocolate sauce is no fun) and some GF cookies. They were a nice complement to the dinner!
I think our wait staff, Ade and April Joy, were quite mystified by my reaction to my food – first Ade saw me on my phone counting (where I was looking and the number of days of the cruises we had taken on our Holland America account) and then adding the 2 Royal Caribbean cruises and then the number of days already on this cruise, which I ended up needing to count on my hands too and then I guess he thought there was something wrong so he came by and I told him just how wonderful my dinner entree was and how many days we had been on a cruise ship and he was quite impressed and said he will tell the chef! I will follow up with a note to the chef myself as I believe in positive feedback too!
Well, tomorrow is another day at sea – tonight the waves are up a bit and the captain has suggested that people hang onto the railings if they are walking in the corridors – I of course have that handled with my snazzy walker guiding me – however it is funny watching Andrew ahead of me wandering side to side along the corridor! We are doing fewer porpoising moves now (up and down from the bow) and more side to side movements it seems. I will report in on the sea condition tomorrow when the captain comes on a noon and reports in!
We hope you all are having a good day wherever in the world you happen to be reading this from!