Sea Day 1 of 4
Since we lost the ability to visit Madagascar, we now have four sea days. Today was day one. It was a rough night at sea and it affected my ability to sleep as well as I should. There were 15′ swells as we continue on our course following the outside edge of Cyclone Freddy. The captain is changing our course as needed to ensure we have the smoothest passage possible and I feel completely safe and protected in his care. I was up early due to another time change and I was able to be at the gym when it opened at 6:00am. It is nice to start resuming my workout routines without being in pain. After my workout I worked on my computer for an hour and enjoyed my morning tea before I went and woke up Megan. We heading to the Pinnacle Grill for breakfast and then we went to Project Linus for our crochet time. I had to leave a little early because I had a 10:30am massage today. It was nice to have an opportunity to have a massage primarily for relaxation and not for therapy. It had been a month and I needed it. After, I headed home to check in with Megan and found a beautiful bouquet of flowers in my cabin. Every two weeks we have I flowers delivered to our cabin because it make our room look and feel more like home. They had already been delivered a couple of days ago. But these were from Guest Services for my willingness to step up and donate blood when asked. It was way above and beyond for them to do this for us and I appreciate the gratitude they showed me, but I would do it again for nothing in a heart beat if needed. Then I went back to the spa for an acupuncture appointment at 1:30pm. At 3:00 we had a meeting with the excursion team and the other passengers who are all going on the Safari at Kruger National Park in a few days. There are 25 passengers going on this overland tour. We will have a Holland America Employee, Rebecca, escorting us and staying with us for the entirety of our time off the ship. I will not be able to blog those few days and I will have much to share when I get back on the ship. We will be off the ship May 8th-10th. Today we received our daily itinerary, a suggested packing list, and we all had a chance to ask any questions we had. We will take a bus to the location and then at the end of the trip we will fly to Durban to meet the ship again as it will have moved on without us. They concluded our meeting with a champagne toast to the memories and adventures we will all be making together soon. After the meeting we headed home to get ready for dinner. We invited two EXC staff, Dali and Adeline to join us for dinner in the main dining room tonight. We love the opportunity to again get to more about the crew on board. Where they came from, how they came to work on cruise ships, what they did during COVID and then they get a chance to learn more about us and our family. The conversation flowed so easily and before we knew it, it was 8:00pm and time to call it an evening.
I want to mention that March 2nd, was my late husband’s 7th angelversary in heaven and one of his favorite snacks was Bugles. He taught the kids at a young age how to put them on their fingers and make “claws” and then eat them. In his memory we bought these bacon flavor ones we found in Reunion and we look forward to trying them. We miss him every day and he is in our hearts wherever we go. We will be in the Ireland in about a month. I had the opportunity to take some of his ashes there shortly after he passed as he desired very much to go there and never had the opportunity to. It will be a bit emotional visiting there again, but we will remember him as we venture on in our lives.
Hope you are all having a fabulous weekend. Remember to make some time to laugh, live and love . Hugs.
Live Vicariously Through Debra 