Crossing the Pacific...Sea Day 3 of 5

 Friday, February 2, 2024

It was another rough and bumpy night, but seas appeared to be a little calmer when we woke up.

Bob and I went to breakfast together and then split...he to pickleball and me to the 9 am coffee chat...or so I thought. On my way to the coffee chat featuring the food and beverage team I noticed a line was already forming at BB Kings for the 9:30 am "Lauhala Bracelet Class". I wanted to make sure I got into the class so I just joined the line. By 9:00 all 160 bracelet kits had been passed out and the class began at 9:10 (20 minutes early.) The bracelets were woven from the leaves ("lau") of the Hala tree using a long string of raffia. The prep work had been done in advance so the weaving took about 45 minutes to complete a bracelet. 

The finished bracelet with my kukui nut lei.

Next I made my way to the Crow's Nest...all the way forward on Deck 12. With my limited mobility I hadn't done much exploring on the ship and this was the first time I had ventured that far. It looked like a popular place with people reading, working jigsaw puzzles and playing games. The art center was located on one side of the Crow's Nest and that is where "Coloring for Adults" was held. I had checked out this class a couple of years ago on the Eurodam and felt like I had stumbled into a kindergarten class. Color book pages and a bucket of colored pencils were set out on a table and that was it.

I was hoping there might be some instruction this time, but there wasn't. The colored pencils were a little higher quality however. A man set down next to me and proceeded to spread out his own pencils on a towel and then got out the picture he was working on. I looked over and thought perhaps I was out of my league. He convinced me to stay and told me all about the professional colored pencil associations he was a member of. I had no idea such things even existed! The guy actually was a professional colored pencil artist who sells his art! I don't think anyone is going to be offering to purchase my color book page but I did have fun so I guess that is all that mattered.

Koningsdam art studio

My coloring page.

Since I was already waaaayyy up high on the ship I decided to go looking for the pickleball court. The minute I stepped outside I thought for sure I was going to be blown right off the side of the ship into the ocean! For real! I did manage to locate Bob but instead of playing pickleball he was in charge of holding onto the end of the net so it wouldn't blow over. (People must REALLY want to play pickleball to put up with conditions like that!)

After lunch at the buffet and some time in our cabin, Bob left to go play ping pong. I went back to the Crows Nest and listened to my audio book while gazing out at the ocean and watching the horizon going up and down from my view.

Knowing how things had gone with the bracelet class earlier I got in line about 20 minutes early for the 3:30 watercolor class. Bob joined me a few minutes later so we could be in the class together. I can't say that either of us produced a masterpiece but we enjoyed it enough that we planned to back for another class.

We left our cabin a little early for our 5:00 dinner time and stopped by Ron and Jean's room so I could drop off the knee brace she had loaned me. They invited us in and we chatted for a bit. They shared the story of how the first night on the ship they had gone out on their balcony to enjoy a glass of wine and accidently got locked out of their room! They finally were able to get someone's attention on a lower deck and were rescued!

Dinner was interesting. I ordered the coconut shrimp and our waiter said "just so you know the shrimp is served ON a salad." I was OK with that but when he brought the salad there as NO shrimp. He looked shocked when he set the plate in front of me and quickly left to go find some shrimp! Eventually he came back with a coffee saucer containing two shrimp!

The outdoor temperatures were starting to get warmer as we approached Hawaii and it was much less windy so we finally had some balcony time after dinner. At 7:30 we went to the main stage to make sure we got seats for the Step One dance performance "Move" that had been postponed from a couple of nights ago. At 8:00 Kristen, the cruise director, came out and announced that although the dancers had done a complete show at 6:00 the ship was now moving more and they were going to do a modified version for us. AND...the show was going to start 15 minutes late.

Our location.

The performance did begin at 8:15 but between each dance number were LONG pauses where the audience just sat in the dark. And then...20 minutes later it was over. Basically we waited 45 minutes for a 20 minute show with very awkward gaps in the performance. 

The "Orange Party" was scheduled for 9:00 in BB Kings and we had worn our orange to dinner. BUT when the dance show was over, so was I. My knee was bothering me more and I had no desire to go to a party. But I can tell you we didn't miss it entirely. Nope. Every bass note and drum beat came through loud and clear in our cabin. 

My token orange scarf...the only orange item of clothing in my closet.