Feb 13th, 2023 Day 41 of 128

Hobart, Tasmania

Good morning from Hobart. We awoke in the same place we fell asleep again this morning. Don’t make fun, it’s a novelty to us. I am still nursing a sore back and didn’t sleep very well last night. But I will not let it slow me down. We were up this morning and grabbed a quick breakfast at the Lido before meeting our excursion group for the day. We met our excursion group in Rolling Stone Stone lounge, just to keep us on our toes. We did go to Main Stage first and there was no one there. Make sure you read that app and double check your meeting spots. Then we walked off the ship and caught the bus over to the Royal Botanical Gardens. It is the second oldest garden in Australia. We had a lovely guided tour through as much as the grounds as time would allow. Such beautiful plants and many flowers in bloom. Megan found some Nasturtium seeds in the gift shop and she was excited as one is peach and one is black and she said those colors aren’t common at home. She is excited to get home to plant them. Then we were back on the bus for the long ride to the top of Mount Wellington. I am actually surprised they let buses as large as ours to the top of this mountain. Most of the road was about a lane and half wide and there were cars going in both directions. We had to “suck it in” many times to get by cars coming the other direction. The view from the top was absolutely breathtaking and worth the drive up the mountain. It was about 40 degrees at the top of this 4170′ high mountain and it made for a short time off the bus to take as many photos as we could before running back onto the bus to warm ourselves. Then it was a long drive back down the mountain to back to the ship. We did get to see the Cadbury Chocolate factory that has been here since 1922 making delicious chocolate that many of you will enjoy this coming Valentine’s day. There were several vendors set up in the terminal and Megan found a pair of earrings, I got a lively opal ring and we purchased a couple of pewter friends, one Tasmanian Devil and one Kangaroo to commemorate our adventures here in Tasmania. When we got back on the ship I went to the spa and booked a massage for later in the day and even had to miss dinner but at this point I didn’t care. Megan went and had dinner with Gail and Marty in the Main Dining room. The ship re-broadcasted the Super Bowl at 6:00pm this evening on the ship to give the ship an opportunity to throw a Super Bowl party and have a pub crawl. We did not participate. There were several passengers that did not do excursions today and stayed on board to watch the game live that started at 10:00am our time. My favorite part of watching the super bowl is the commercials and sadly we don’t get them here on the ship so I will have to catch up on the best of in the next few days. Tomorrow is a sea day and I am going to go back to my masseuse at 10:15 am. I ordered room service, took a muscle relaxer and a sleeping pill and crashed hard ( I will admit I am actually writing this a day late). There was a medical emergency in the middle of the night, I think around midnight and there was an announcement made over the PA system that did wake us up. I will respectfully just say that a passenger passed away last night and we pray for his wife and those who knew him. Well tomorrow is Valentine’s day here so I will wish everyone on board chocolate wishes and flower dreams and the same to all of you in the states for tomorrow evening. Hugs.