December 3 - Somewhere at sea

We’re on our sixth day at sea on our way to Hawaii.  The weather has been sunny and has gotten progressively warmer as we’ve sailed along.  We’ve been experiencing long swells so the ship has been doing a fair amount of rocking.  It’s great for sleeping – like being in a cradle – but not so good for walking around.  On the other hand maybe it is because it makes us use muscles and brain cells we don’t normally to stay upright.

The routine has continued.  I have gone to a couple of fascinating talks on how to use the photo app on my iPhone.  I’m not very tech savvy; I just learned last year when I was on the cruise to Antarctica that I could airdrop.  In these last talks I’ve been learning how to edit and organize the photos I take.  Who knew that all those pictures where the horizon is tipsy I can actually fix!  I also found out that there is a way  to organize the thousands of photos on my phone.  It’s a whole new world.

I continue to meet interesting people.  That’s really one of the best things about traveling and cruising in particular.  There are a couple of very nice gentlemen from Barcelona who come down to the Club most nights and afford me an opportunity to practice Spanish.  Yesterday I met a young woman who looks to be about Katie’s age who is in a wheelchair.  She had either a stroke or an aneurysm like Katie did but she was left profoundly disabled.  I had a conversation with her which was not really easy because her speech has been impaired.  It’s pretty clear that her thought processes weren’t affected which strikes me as being particularly difficult to endure if you know what’s going on and what you’re thinking but have difficulty expressing it.  Anyway, I have great admiration for her and she has made me so much more thankful that Katie came through her aneurysm as well as she did.

Enough about serious stuff.  Well, we finished our first set of trivia games and we didn’t win.  I think we’ll survive the disappointment though.  (The prize was a Seabourn umbrella and I currently have three in my cabin from prior wins.  I’m planning to give them to some staff people who’ve taken especially good care of me, but that’s a hard decision to make because they are all wonderful.)

Tomorrow we’ll arrive in our first Hawaiian port, Kahului on the island of Maui.  I’ve rented a car through Costco travel and two of my friends have decided to take their lives in their hands and go along with me.  We’re going to wander around a little.  In the past when I’ve been to Maui we always tendered into Lahaina, but that’s the part of the island which was destroyed by the fires last year.

I haven't any photos to add today; after all, how many pictures of the ocean can I post?  (Believe me I've taken way too many.)  My friend Stephanie sent me this one of me enjoying my new favorite after-dinner drink/dessert, a Monica Vitte.  We ladies went to the alternative venue where we could get them for dessert in lieu of what was offered in the restaurant.  We were in heaven!

So that’s all for now.  It’s not a very exciting report but not much is happening.  Today I think I’m at the midway point of my travels this time around.  For now, aloha!