Report #70 Day at Sea January 15, 2020 Wednesday Mostly sunny & 75 degrees

Finally we have a day at sea with a lot of sun.  Sure makes a difference to wake up to blue skies, even if it is still very warm, muggy, and windy.  Our seedlings like it too.   As an experiment, we turn the pots during the day, just to see how the plants will follow the light.  In no time, perhaps a few hours, they will all turn in the direction of the sun.

 

We just noticed that the walk-a-mile that takes place on sea days at 10:30am does not earn you the DAM Dimes anymore.  Remember when it was DAM Dollars?  That was fun because if you saved enough of them, you could redeem them for some useful things, like a pull-over sweatshirt.  Then it became Microsoft products, and now…..nothing.  Not sure if there are prizes for winning trivia.  That is something we need to ask Barb, as she plays on a team on sea days. 

 

New items have been filtering into the shops, so many sales were happening around the ship.  Effy jewelry is spot-lighted, Hatley footwear, and Hamilton watches were the rage.  Everything Brazilian from Carnaval to Latin dance, or local food dishes, and Fire and Ice of South America were discussed in the lectures today.  Dance lessons included the merengue and Cuban Salsa.  Sounds more like an appetizer to us.

 

We took advantage of the better weather to relax at the Seaview Pool today.  What a difference from the last cruise we did.  No one was saving lounges, or dragging the umbrellas to the back railing like they did on the previous trip.  There was a total of a dozen sunbathers and a few swimmers in the pool.  Perfect for reading good books.

 

Around 6:30pm, we took our usual seats outside the Ocean Bar, only to find that the quartet was off for the evening.  It seems that each band gets one day off during the week.  There is always an alternative, which was the Station Band in the Crow's Nest.  Oddly enough, there was something wrong with the atrium astrolabium structure which sits on deck three.  There were ropes going across the dome, then tied down to the base.  There has to be a story there, and we will investigate tomorrow.  Heo and Greg strolled by and suggested that they will be selling tickets for a zipline.  Always the comedian.

 

Dinner was a special menu, created by the select chefs of HAL.  The crab cakes were outstanding, as was the zucchini bisque with slivers of green apples.  Really different, but good.  Both of us ordered the halibut, which was excellent.  Prime rib was another popular entrée, as was the rigatoni dish.  The favorite dessert seemed to be the raspberry-ricotta cheese tart.  One of us enjoyed the fruit plate…always a winner.

 

Showtime was a leading international operatic tenor, Lee Bradley, who we did see while on the last cruise.  He has a powerful voice that boomed into the hallways outside the Mainstage.  No need to go inside.

 

Most all of us intend to take the shuttle into the Recife Marketplace tomorrow, mostly to see if we remember being there eight years ago.

 

Bill & Mary Ann