JohnGalt
Who is JohnGalt?
- Joined
- Feb 26, 2001
- Messages
- 149
Day 8, Sunday, April 30, Sea Day
Music Recommendation: “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” Cyndi Lauper
So now come 4 consecutive sea days, and I have to be honest. My notes are a little sparse for these days. It wasn't that we were sedentary during this time; far from it. We love our sea days and we stayed quite active during this time. We went to the gym each of these 4 days, sometimes twice. But I think what was happening, at least as far as my notes go, is that many of the things we did during these 4 days were repeat activities that I had already taken copious notes about. Nevertheless we will endeavor to push forward, illuminate the highlights, and provide as much color commentary as I think your gag reflex can handle.
Our morning caffeine fix arrived promptly at 8:00 am. That's right. 8:00 am. We were luxuriating this morning, sleeping in to recuperate from the previous day's athletic love-hate relationship with the stairs. We chose to take our coffee inside this morning, as opposed to out on the veranda. It was pouring rain outside. We reflected how lucky we were that we had such good weather for most of the PC crossing the day before. Yes, it had rained, but only for about one hour of the nine hours it took to traverse the canal. But with this morning's ferocious downpour, it seemed as if the skies must have been holding back the previous day, and they had chosen this moment to cut loose in a tropical storm of such proportion that even this Oklahoman was impressed. After our morning coffee ritual, we had a little oatmeal and fruit from Cabana's, and we headed out to Captain Puckett’s 9:15 lecture.
Captain Puckett did not disappoint. You probably already got this, but the Captain's lectures were different every day. One day it would be on the history of the Canal, another day it would be on the engineering. I think one day his lecture was devoted to the new Panamax locks that we went through. Today's lecture was on the operations of the Panama Canal, and once again, I was fascinated. Being a Pilot for 16 years for the Panama Canal Authority makes Captain Puckett the ultimate insider, and he always has relevant stories and pictures and charts and graphs and the whole thing is just really absorbing.
From there we hit the “Anyone Can Cook” presentation. Chef was making jambalaya today. As I have said before, normally I would be bored to tears at a cooking demonstration, but somehow, they even manage to Disnefy cooking, and make it entertaining, even for a caveman like me! The sample jambalaya they passed around was excellent, and to top things off, Princess Tiana made an appearance and addressed her subjects. And mind you, this was Princess Tiana, not Supper Club Tiana. I wonder, if the two of them meet onboard, does the universe explode? Like when matter and anti-matter meet? Just one of those many Disney mysteries I’ll never have an answer to.
After “Anyone Can Cook”, we headed to the gym to knock out our daily work out. The only thing to note about our workout today is that we definitely started to see a drop off in the gym attendance. People’s cruise resolutions are beginning to fade. And why shouldn’t they? What’s the point of making a cruise resolution if you don’t intend on breaking it? What’s a cruise without a little self-loathing? Come on, am I right?
We hit up Cabana’s after our workout and grabbed another fantastic salad. Taking an inventory of the day’s calorie activity – we had oatmeal and fruit for breakfast; we had worked out; we had salad for lunch……we were in serious negative calorie territory. Something had to be done, and quick! Enter hand scooped ice cream. I indulged in mint-chip, DW had some fruity coconut concoction. However you spell it, it was way good!
With a full morning of lectures and workouts and eating behind us, we decided to go back to our room and hang out there for a while………which is a euphemism for nap time! DW immediately assumed her mummy-like nap position on the bed, while I relaxed on the veranda. The weather had cleared, and I was standing at the rail taking in the vast ocean seascape, and the Central America coastline beyond, when what to my wondering eyes should appear? A disturbance in the water. At first I thought it was just a turtle, but on closer examination, it was a dolphin. Then another. And another. I turned around and slid the veranda door open and called “Dolphin!” to DW. Now, by way of reminder, here's how DW feels about dolphins:
So the only thing I can think of, to compare the practiced chaos that followed is when an expecting young woman tells her husband that the baby is coming. Well- rehearsed pandemonium ensues, and so it was with us. My wife, gets up and grabs her Cannon Rebel T5I, and in one fluid motion she crosses the expanse between the bed and the balcony like a gazelle. Within 3 seconds from the sounding of the alarm, she is outside, poised, and taking pictures. And just as the expectant young mother returns from the hospital holding the proud fruits of her labor, DW returns from our vacation with this great picture!
I think this picture is funny because it's clearly about 1 second too late!
And they're getting further away, but they are still out there!
Seeing the dolphins in the wild was another cruise highlight for DW. That's not surprising. Girls and dolphins. They just want to have fun.
DW was awake and she had a nice adrenaline rush going now. There was no returning to her former zombie like trance at this point, so she took some more wildlife photos:
Music Recommendation: “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” Cyndi Lauper
So now come 4 consecutive sea days, and I have to be honest. My notes are a little sparse for these days. It wasn't that we were sedentary during this time; far from it. We love our sea days and we stayed quite active during this time. We went to the gym each of these 4 days, sometimes twice. But I think what was happening, at least as far as my notes go, is that many of the things we did during these 4 days were repeat activities that I had already taken copious notes about. Nevertheless we will endeavor to push forward, illuminate the highlights, and provide as much color commentary as I think your gag reflex can handle.
Our morning caffeine fix arrived promptly at 8:00 am. That's right. 8:00 am. We were luxuriating this morning, sleeping in to recuperate from the previous day's athletic love-hate relationship with the stairs. We chose to take our coffee inside this morning, as opposed to out on the veranda. It was pouring rain outside. We reflected how lucky we were that we had such good weather for most of the PC crossing the day before. Yes, it had rained, but only for about one hour of the nine hours it took to traverse the canal. But with this morning's ferocious downpour, it seemed as if the skies must have been holding back the previous day, and they had chosen this moment to cut loose in a tropical storm of such proportion that even this Oklahoman was impressed. After our morning coffee ritual, we had a little oatmeal and fruit from Cabana's, and we headed out to Captain Puckett’s 9:15 lecture.
Captain Puckett did not disappoint. You probably already got this, but the Captain's lectures were different every day. One day it would be on the history of the Canal, another day it would be on the engineering. I think one day his lecture was devoted to the new Panamax locks that we went through. Today's lecture was on the operations of the Panama Canal, and once again, I was fascinated. Being a Pilot for 16 years for the Panama Canal Authority makes Captain Puckett the ultimate insider, and he always has relevant stories and pictures and charts and graphs and the whole thing is just really absorbing.
From there we hit the “Anyone Can Cook” presentation. Chef was making jambalaya today. As I have said before, normally I would be bored to tears at a cooking demonstration, but somehow, they even manage to Disnefy cooking, and make it entertaining, even for a caveman like me! The sample jambalaya they passed around was excellent, and to top things off, Princess Tiana made an appearance and addressed her subjects. And mind you, this was Princess Tiana, not Supper Club Tiana. I wonder, if the two of them meet onboard, does the universe explode? Like when matter and anti-matter meet? Just one of those many Disney mysteries I’ll never have an answer to.
After “Anyone Can Cook”, we headed to the gym to knock out our daily work out. The only thing to note about our workout today is that we definitely started to see a drop off in the gym attendance. People’s cruise resolutions are beginning to fade. And why shouldn’t they? What’s the point of making a cruise resolution if you don’t intend on breaking it? What’s a cruise without a little self-loathing? Come on, am I right?
We hit up Cabana’s after our workout and grabbed another fantastic salad. Taking an inventory of the day’s calorie activity – we had oatmeal and fruit for breakfast; we had worked out; we had salad for lunch……we were in serious negative calorie territory. Something had to be done, and quick! Enter hand scooped ice cream. I indulged in mint-chip, DW had some fruity coconut concoction. However you spell it, it was way good!
With a full morning of lectures and workouts and eating behind us, we decided to go back to our room and hang out there for a while………which is a euphemism for nap time! DW immediately assumed her mummy-like nap position on the bed, while I relaxed on the veranda. The weather had cleared, and I was standing at the rail taking in the vast ocean seascape, and the Central America coastline beyond, when what to my wondering eyes should appear? A disturbance in the water. At first I thought it was just a turtle, but on closer examination, it was a dolphin. Then another. And another. I turned around and slid the veranda door open and called “Dolphin!” to DW. Now, by way of reminder, here's how DW feels about dolphins:
So the only thing I can think of, to compare the practiced chaos that followed is when an expecting young woman tells her husband that the baby is coming. Well- rehearsed pandemonium ensues, and so it was with us. My wife, gets up and grabs her Cannon Rebel T5I, and in one fluid motion she crosses the expanse between the bed and the balcony like a gazelle. Within 3 seconds from the sounding of the alarm, she is outside, poised, and taking pictures. And just as the expectant young mother returns from the hospital holding the proud fruits of her labor, DW returns from our vacation with this great picture!
I think this picture is funny because it's clearly about 1 second too late!
And they're getting further away, but they are still out there!
Seeing the dolphins in the wild was another cruise highlight for DW. That's not surprising. Girls and dolphins. They just want to have fun.
DW was awake and she had a nice adrenaline rush going now. There was no returning to her former zombie like trance at this point, so she took some more wildlife photos:
:
That is a powerful comparison that I will now use on my husband whenever possible.
Still enjoying following along. All those sea days sound lovely though. 
