Bill took this picture from the hotel while we were waiting to board the ship.
No Norovirus. We saw our cabin steward washing down the walls in the hallway last night. He said it was just a precaution. He was truthful because the dining restrictions were removed and we served ourselves in the Lido today.
We are sleeping so well that we didn’t wake up until 9:20
and we had to hustle to make it in time to get our oatmeal. We are putting the
clock forward an hour tonight so we may not wake up until noon tomorrow.
Last night, we saw one of the canned shows that the ship
dancers and singers put on every few days. It was called “Avalon”. I knew about
half the songs. We will probably skip it next time although it was fine.
Tonight, there is a pianist.
We ran into our waiter and told him we didn’t show up for
dinner because Bill doesn’t have a jacket. He said they have jackets and will
give him one to wear if he shows up without one! Who knew?
We ate lunch with a nice man named Hector from Northern
Italy. He now lives in Boston but is going home to visit his five sisters who
are still in Italy. He brought some passion fruit and a Japanese apple/pear to
the table and we shared them. The
passion fruit looks like a plum. I scooped out the middle with a spoon. It tastes
citrusy. Bill saw the chef carving a turkey and asked for the drum stick so he
was pretty happy.
I went to book club today. We started out discussing faith
versus reason. One person mentioned that the Catholic Church once took a vote
on whether or not women have souls. It turns out that we do but the vote was
pretty close.
We also discussed women’s rights and how fortunate we are
that we live in the Western world in 2013 rather than anywhere else at any time
in history. There were three men present and one apologized for his entire
gender.
I had a nice chat with some gals who actually made it to the
Cruise Critic Meet and Greet. I think we are all set for the first tour in
Ponta Delgado, Portugal.
After book club, I made it around the deck three times which
equals a mile. I haven’t seen one evidence of life in the ocean yet. No birds,
no flying fish. The water is over 15,000 feet deep according to the ship
information board.
Fantastic piano player tonight. Elliot Finkle has been
playing on Holland America for 23 years. His brother is playing the xylophone
on a sister ship tonight and his father is a 90 year old actor who has an Emmy.
He started with, “It’s Going to be Good Day” by the Black Eyed Peas, then a
song by Adele, some Gershwin, a classical piece and a rousing medley of songs
about New York ending with “New York, New York.” He got a standing ovation.
The HALcats were also wonderful. They have a female
saxophone player named Emma. You don’t see that every day. All in all, a fine
program.
