A "Fun" Day at Sea

I realized today that the old adage of how we choose to see an experience is really up to us:  the glass half full, or the glass half empty.

I must admit when we boarded the ship yesterday, I was dismayed.  The population was evenly spread on either side of our family:  young, 20-something, party kids who enjoy sitting by the pool, drinking their lives away, and senior citizens who enjoy sitting by the pool, eating their lives away.  In both cases, there appears to be some kind of search for happiness that I just don’t think can be found in a glass, or on a plate.  I wondered exactly how I was going to feel that the money spent on this cruise was worth it.  I wondered too how we were going to find our “place” on this ship, our family who purposely lives on eleven acres of land so that we don’t have to be too close to our neighbors.  This was definitely a “glass half-empty” moment, and I envisioned many more over the coming week.

Enter this morning.  10 solid hours of sleep, and (unbelievably) no allergy symptoms for the first time in years.  Already the glass was filling up!

Being the family that we are, we took the bull by the horns and decided to make our idea of a happy experience, instead of letting the experience make our happiness.  After a quick, healthy breakfast, we headed up to the very top of the ship to a jogging track!  I know, what the heck?  Jogging?  On vacation?  The track was only 1/9 mile long, but whether running one lap of a mile, or 9, it’s the same distance.  Because it was early, the sun wasn’t too strong for our porcelain skin, and there was a nice breeze from the moving ship.  There was ocean in all directions.  It was amazing!  There were a few “walls” of slow-moving people who were looking for a deck chair more than they were noticing that it was a running track, but it kept the run interesting.  Johannah ran 2 miles, Mark ran almost 4, and John ran 5 miles.  I walked 2, and the ankle kept up!  Mark had to laugh when he heard people talking about him, and noticing that he must be related to John—two freakishly tall, super-skinny men, running without shirts, and running fast.  I had to laugh when a little boy who appeared to be about three-years-old saw John running by, wearing just his mini-running shorts and said, “Look, Mama.  Dat man has no underpants on.”  J  Glo spent the entire time going down the water slide and swimming next door.

Back to the room for a shower, lunch with the Lees, and a suggestion from David that we enter a “trivia contest”.  He figured between the seven of us, we would stand a chance at winning.  I don’t even want to go into the fact that the contest was held in the “Winston Cigar Salon”, one of the few places on board where people can smoke!  Trying to fill up the glass, right?

Turns out, it wasn’t so much trivia as brain teasers.  22 of them, in fact.  For example, we had to figure out puzzles like:

7 D in a W, or

24 H in a D

If you love puzzles and games like I do (hello GAMES magazine!), this was like heaven.

7 Days in a Week, or

24 Hours in a Day

Those were the easy ones.  These were some of the harder ones:

54 C in a D (with two J), or

3 BM (SHTR), or

1000 W that a P is W

Give yourself some time.  These are rather tricky.

54 Cards in a Deck (with two Jokers), or

3 Blind Mice (See How They Run), or

1000 Words that a Picture is Worth

Between the seven of us, guess what?  WE WON!!  Yep, we got all 22 puzzles.  I think David and I were the main solvers, but there were a couple that we didn’t get.  Mark got this one:

8 S on a SS

Seriously, I had no idea.

How about 8 Sides on a Stop Sign? J

Come to find out, the prizes are pretty dang amazing, and we are told that by the end of the cruise, they are rather coveted items.  Are you ready?  A ship on a stick, or for the more hoity-toity set, a vessel on a tressel.  We walked around for the next two hours with those claims to fame, and only after half of the ship had seen them and drooled over them did we finally take them back to our rooms.

Two hours later, we headed back to the cigar hell for “Family Feud”.  We made it into the final round, but we kept tying with the other team.  Instead of figuring out some better way to determine the victor, our emcee had us sit down and brought up two teams whom we had already defeated!  He had a run-off between the two of them and picked a winner!  What the heck?  We were completely robbed of our second set of trophies!  However, I must admit that we were rooting for the winning team because they have two cute teenage girls that always look rather miserable, sitting with their parents.  They deserved the glory and happiness that only gold, plastic ships can bring.

The best part of the day?  I was determined to find one quiet spot on the ship that didn’t involve my own state room (that term is highly debatable).  I had remembered walking along one of the decks the night before and remembered that there had not been another person in sight.  No loud music, no TV screens, no food, no alcohol.  Just a person, some railing and the sea.  I was determined to find this spot of solace once again.  Thankfully, Mark too felt the need for some peace and quiet, and together we were able to channel our collective memories in our quest.

Deck 3.  This is the entrance and exit deck, so obviously it wouldn’t have much on it.  Its usual purpose is to move people on and off the boat, so it can’t be laden with chairs and entertainment.  When we finally popped our heads out of the labyrinth of rooms, casinos, bars and stairways off the main part of the ship, we knew we had found our Shangri-La.  Somehow, eight chairs had found their way to the ¼-mile length of the ship, and the lifeboats, hanging from the ceiling, provided shade from the direct, Caribbean sun.  Too, the only ambient noise was the soundtrack of the ocean waves.  Heaven.

We must have stayed there for at least two hours.  I honestly don’t know, because time lost all value while sitting there.  Finally the vacation I had been looking for—the main men in my life, a couple of good magazines, and nature.  The glass was overflowing.

We figured it was time to head to dinner to meet up with David and Mel.  Imagine our surprise when we popped in on Glo and Hannah (watching unlimited TV in their room—their idea of the perfect vacation) and Glo told us that Mel had called to remind us of the group photo to be taken in …. 20 minutes!  Not only that, but it is the “elegant” evening.  For most citizens of the planet, or at least female citizens of the planet currently residing on a cruise ship, that means wear as few clothes as possible, with the highest heels possible, showing as much cleavage as one can muster. 

John hopped in the shower, I donned my Eddie Bauer black knit shirt (that could probably double as a maternity shirt) and my white skirt (I at least could match the overall general dress code colors), threw some hairspray in my hair and ran out into the hall to get the kids from their room.  Glo came out in her bright yellow cruise shirt with yellow leggings (had she even brought dress clothes), Hannah with her hair undone, and Mark in a pink, button-down shirt, with Ethan’s gabardine trousers that are too short for Mark, and his orange-red Dr. Seuss high tops.  The main thing that John had a problem with?  The pink shirt--not the shoes.  With three minutes to spare, Mark jumped back in his room, came out with a white shirt and tie, and as we were running up the stairs, he was tying and retying the tie—he’s a bit overly concerned (shall I say anal?) about the length of his tie.  It was one of those moments that we just had to own.  No embarrassment, no regrets.  We are who we are, right?  Turns out, Mark was quite the star in his shoes (what’s new about that?) and got multiple comments, and even pictures taken of them.

We had a fun few moments to dance with each other, and then it was off to dinner.  I must say, it’s been amazing to see my kids trying every new food that is thrown at them.  As we wove our way through the labyrinth of halls and cleavage to the dining room, I wondered how well the lobster dinner was going to go over with them, but they were super stars!  Both Mark and I tried the lobster and enjoyed it, Hannah ordered duck of all things (with great encouragement and support from Mel), and Glo?  Tiring of the showcase of novel food, she noticed that “steamed white rice” was a side dish to one of the exotic entrees.  She asked for just that.  Steamed white rice.

I was glad to have a few moments to really talk to David and Mel about scuba diving, the adventure slated for the next day.  David tries to keep everything very low-key (translation:  low stress for Larisa so that she doesn’t stay up all night worrying), but Mel tells us just how it is.  She doesn’t love scuba diving, but she does it because she loves David.  Our lives are simpatico, and I can’t think of a better reason to do anything that I don’t want to do.

You know, there might have been a few sips taken out of our glass of water today, but the fountain of happiness just kept filling it all up again.  What a good first day.