Tuesday, November 12, 2013

November 11 – Veterans’ (Remembrance) Day at sea


Today is our next to the last day on board.  Once again we have blue skies and it’s pretty hot and humid.  Today is Veterans’ Day. To the British on the ship it’s called Remembrance Day.  I can’t remember if I mentioned earlier on that the British are the majority on the Quest.  Anyway, there was a very nice service in the Grand Salon with some prayers and a couple of hymns, including Amazing Grace which always makes me cry.  At precisely 11 AM the ship’s horn sounded to begin a minute of silence.  The whole thing was very nicely done.

At 11:15 we had to meet in Club 5, the Trivia venue, to prepare for our Fancy Dress (meaning costumes) session of Trivia.  As our team name this round is “The Eggheads” we wore sheets and chef’s hats with Eggheads written on them.  We were each a different kind of egg.  We didn’t win the costume competition which didn’t surprise me.  Some of the teams had really elaborate get-ups. We played a short round of trivia afterwards and we’ll get our scores tomorrow.  (No pictures at the moment.  The ones we took are so dreadful I can't bring myself to post them.  perhaps one of our teammates will send me a better one.)

We decided that this afternoon we wouldn’t do anything planned at all.  We spent a little time catching up on e-mails and the blog.  We sat on the balcony for awhile and we played a couple of games of Scrabble.  I think we’re about even at this point.


Tonight was a formal night and we got all dressed up again.  I’m getting pretty good at tying Al’s bowtie!  We met our friends up in the Observation Bar and after a drink or two decided to go down to dinner.  The senior member of the group, a long time Seabourn cruiser who knows every officer on the ship, had the head bar steward call down to the dining room to ask about a table for six.  A few moments later the Maitre d’ called back to say there was a long wait because everyone seemed to come at the same time and wanted larger tables.  So we changed plans and went to the Colonnade and ate outside.  It was a lovely night with nearly a half moon, lots of stars and just a faint breeze so it wasn’t too hot.  It was our first time eating there at night and it was very nice.  There were lots of LED candles on the table and you are served from an a la carte menu, not a buffet.  Another couple we’ve become friends with were already there so we eight dined together.  After a nice meal, good wine and good conversation we did something we rarely do.  We went to the show.  Tonight there was a British comedian who was quite funny.  We enjoyed it and then decided to turn in.  We lose an hour of sleep tonight.

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