Jon texted us at 8 am to let us know they were going to the church service at 8:30. Bob and I got up and as I was getting dressed, Bob offered to get me a cup of coffee from the buffet which I greatly appreciated! We were ready in record time and were in the Explorer's Lounge by 8:20...even before Jon and Michelle arrived!
The same handouts that we had used on the first Sunday were passed out to everyone attending. One gentleman seemed to be taking charge and led the service. He started with the hymn "Amazing Grace". No one volunteered to lead the singing and when we began singing it was by far the worst rendition ever. The guy leading was singing into the microphone and was totally off key. But even worse, he was not even singing the lyrics along with the melody. (A crew member was playing the piano.) After a few bars, a lady stopped him and offered to lead, but she wasn't much of a singer either. It was painful at best. Michelle has a beautiful voice and would have volunteered, but just like me, she was dealing with a cold.
We did make it through the responsive readings and the prayers written in the handout but the service lacked any sort of personal meaning. One of the prayers even mentioned praying for the queen! We all came away with an appreciation for the worship time we have in our home churches.
There was no where we needed or wanted to be following the service so the four of us had breakfast in the MDR. It does take a very long time to get served, but is a nice alternative to the hustle and bustle of the buffet at morning.
Our son was texting us while we ate with news of the blizzard in Minnesota. He said they had at least a foot of snow on the ground with extreme wind and more snow falling. I saw warnings online that there was absolutely no travel advised for all of southern Minnesota. It was nice to be in a warm climate, but I felt like we were missing out on all of the fun!
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| Our grandsons enjoying the Minnesota blizzard! |
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| The ship was still far enough south that we were enjoying nice warm temps! |
After 25 days on the ship, the activities have become a little repetitive and we are finding that we don't need to participate in everything on the schedule. After breakfast I did a little hand laundry in the bathroom sink and hung it to dry on the balcony. Michelle did a full load of laundry. Bob went for a walk on the promenade deck and then attended an enrichment talk on air accident investigations. The presenter, Dale Erhart, had experience in so many different facets of air travel that he truly did make a great speaker.
Jon opted for a nap. I think he too is coming down with the sniffles. At this point I was so happy that we spent the extra money to get a balcony. Being around 3000 other people day in and day out is hard and I love having our little outdoor space to escape to...even more so with the extended balcony. And that is what we did the rest of the morning!
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| Nice, calm seas. |
No tables were available when we went to lunch at the buffet so we ate sitting in the sun by the aft pool. It felt so good to be in the sunshine!
Bob and I were both really sleepy and came back to the cabin for a nap. Jon and Michelle had gone up to Deck 16 to lay in the sun, but rather than join them when I woke up, I put on my swimsuit top, poured myself a Diet Coke and went back to the balcony. I could hear the music blaring from the upper decks, but I was happy in my little oasis.
I wasn't keeping track of the time and was surprised when I realized it was time to go to dinner. We had planned to see the hypnotist show in the theater, but as we were eating I could tell I was getting a tickle in my throat. I didn't feel bad, but knew I didn't want to have a coughing fit surrounded by hundreds of other people in the theater. I let the others go on without me and went back to the cabin by myself. I had been wanting to see the movie "Song, Song Blue" with Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson so I propped myself up in bed and turned on the TV. Bob returned before the movie was over and finished watching with me. And that was it for the night.
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