six days at sea

Six days at sea

Dear Friends and Family,

Although internet access is possible on the ship, it is very expensive ($.42 a minute) so I’ve only been doing my classes and skipping the blog. This is catch up time.

We’ve spent six days at sea, off in the Atlantic, enjoying beautiful weather and mild seas. We’ve been surprisingly busy. Our friends Shirley and Bob are rehearsing with the ship’s choir and have talked me into joining the dancers. Every day since we’ve been on the ship I’ve been trotting off to dance rehearsals. I have new respect for dancers and for their memories. Every rehearsal feels like we are learning a new dance because I can’t remember the steps from one day to another.

We’ve spent surprisingly little time with our friends during the day. Bob and Shirley are rehearsing their two songs, I’m at dance rehearsals or walking the track, Stu is in heaven in the spa enjoying the jacuzzi, sauna, steam room, and hot beds, others are off doing their own thing. And we meet for dinner each evening after enjoying a bottle of wine together in our staterooms. The ship’s entertainment has been enjoyable with an impersonator we enjoyed very much. He sang some old favorites and we actually could remember the words, so we sang along.

We celebrated Linda’s birthday on board ship on Sunday. We wanted to surprise her with flowers in her room, a lovely cake and champagne at dinner. Except for the flowers never arriving until dinner, we sang with the dining room crew and were only a little off-key for happy birthday. The champagne was flat but the chocolate cake was yummy.

And Monday night we celebrated a beautiful seder dinner, led by a retired cantor. Nearly one hundred of us enjoyed the Passover dinner, complete with bone shank, fresh horse radish, matzoh, and Manischewitz wine. I’ve been on a matzoh diet for the past week, no bread or pastry for me, but that doesn’t mean that I’m going without more than enough to eat!

The time has gone very quickly, much too quickly. We weren’t ready for the first day ashore in the Azores where we met Ricardo Amorim, our tour guide. But that’s for another blog.

We never forget how blessed we are to be able to take this journey. Wishing you could all be with us.

Adrienne and Stu