Day 8 – August 13th, 2006

Finally a day at sea! While we have absolutely loved everything we have seen and done on shore, we were relieved to have a day at sea to do nothing but relax (and sleep in a little, too). And relax we did! The captain informed us yesterday that at 2 a.m. this morning we would be passing an island which could be a beautiful sight since we had a nearly-full moon.

We woke up at noon (after turning the clocks ahead an hour), and finally made our way up to the top of the ship around 1:30 p.m. After a Mexican lunch at the buffet, we went in search of lounge chairs in the sun. There’s nothing like a couple of quick burritos in your stomach before baking out in the sun. Trying to find a lounge char was quite the trick! Most people had been up there for hours, so it was tough to find a place to sit. We bumped into a couple from Cleveland who we had met earlier in the trip and they had a couple seats nearby for us. Unfortunately, they were in a portion of the ship which was extremely windy, and not far from a couple of doors with signs that read “WARNING: ACID” and “WARNING: CHLORINE.” We decided to continue looking for lounge chairs elsewhere. Finally we found two chairs and stretched out to relax.

More chairs opened up around the pool, so we made our way to the poolside in front of the big movie screen playing Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. We enjoyed our afternoon reading and sunning. Perhaps Amy enjoyed too much, because her legs look a bit lobster-like right now. And a sun-burnt lobster, at that. Oops!

We enjoyed the time in the sun, and then came back to the room to get ready for formal night! We met up with a couple we met earlier in the trip from Orlando. The guy, David, went to Michigan a few years before Amy. The four of us enjoyed the captain’s gala and a nice, leisurely formal dinner. It was fun getting to know other people on the ship and have some company one night for dinner.

We all went down to the Movie under the Stars screen after and watched Proof – not such a great movie. Gwyneth Paltrow played a brilliant mathematician; Seth had issues with this casting decision. We then headed to the casino (didn’t do as well tonight) and walked around the ship for a while. We were in the middle of water everywhere, so all you could see from all sides was blackness and stars. It was surreal. We walked towards the way back of the ship and stood right above the engines – the churning waters were reminiscent of our trip to Niagara Falls.

After a final stop at the late night buffet where Seth was sorely disappointed at the quality of the 2 a.m. pizza, we retired for the evening. We are looking forward to the beach at Mykonos tomorrow. We’re only there for a half day, so we’re going to try to get up a little early to make the most of the day.