Mother Mother Ocean

“Fun Day at Sea #2”: Woke up, and the Monster Headache was miraculously gone. My body must have decided that I was not, in fact, getting off this oceanliner-type-thing, so we’d better just get with the seagoing program. Welcome back to the Land of Eating! (Hello, Buffet!) There are an awful lot of things to do on this Party Boat, and today we determined to try…a bunch of them. We swam in the pool (which incidentally is filled with salt water from the ocean…weird, but cool! Also, it has a deep ledge built all around it, and as the ship rolls gently from side to side, a miniature tidal wave washes water from the pool back and forth to the walls. This means that technically, you don’t even have to be IN the pool to get wet. I just sat there on the ledge, leaning against the enclosure, and let the water come to me. How’s THAT for lazy vacation behavior?). We lounged in the hot tub (when idly waiting for the water to come splash me was just becoming too much work…) We played ping pong (why? Because it was there, of course.) We played basketball. We did NOT karaoke—we do have our standards, after all. We continued our walking program, around and around and around the Sun Deck, to counteract the semi-nonstop munching we were also doing. (Philosophical question: if 10 scrumptious-looking desserts are offered at each meal, and a hypothetical passenger—say me, for example--has paid to eat as much as she wants on this cruise, should she then feel compelled to taste each and every sweet treat? Okay, maybe just all the chocolate ones. That’s reasonable, right? I promise I’ll do more laps!)

Welcome to Grand Turk! How’s this for adjustment: when we pulled into port, the fact that the engines had stopped their rumbling and the ship had ceased its rocking…woke me up!  Derek and Riley complained about waking up early since we’d landed at 7 a.m. but we mustered them with the promise of…breakfast (What? You didn’t think for a second that we could venture onshore without eating again, did you?) Looking over the side of the ship at the Caribbean Ocean I thought, “WOW that’s blue!” A total cliché, I realize, but it is SOOO true. Turquoise water, chaise lounges set up in rows under palm trees, an ocean breeze tempering the tropical heat…yes, I have sailed right to Heaven. I stayed pretty near the shore (deep-water-wimp that I am), but I still saw schools of little fish darting around my feet, and even a Nurse Shark (according to a lady standing near me, who sounded authoritative and knowledgeable, so what the heck, I believe her!) The boys (all 3) on the other hand, disappeared with the snorkel gear out to the limits of the roped-in buoy area and ogled all kinds of submarine wildlife. For hours. Hey, I was fine with that—I had myself a walk on the beach, a peaceful period of reclining in a beach chair watching all the activity, and a smoothie (mango/banana/pineapple—YUM!). Color me one Cheerful Caribbean Chica!