Today was Nicky's 9th birthday. We all got up around 8:00a.m. and had room service. We had to shower and be ready when the cruise director, Lisa came to our rooms to get us. We had a 10:00a.m. appointment with the Captain. His name is Captain Dag Dvergastein. He is from Norway. He is very tall and has a wonderful accent when he speaks English! The cruise line people decorated Nicky's door to the cabin so all that passed by would know it was his birthday. We went to the BRIDGE to meet the captain and he was very grcious. He let Nicky sit in HIS chair and look through his binoculars. Very cool. There was also a huge telescope on a stand near his cahir. While we were in there and he was showing us around, Nicky asked him who was driving the ship! It seems now with all the computers they had in there, it is basically sailing itself. We are on autopilot most of the time! The captain gave Nicholas a gift. One of his own backpacks. I'm sure Nicky will start taking that to school when we get home! At 10:30a.m. the cruise director arranged for us to have a Top Toss birthday party for Nicky. He invited about 20 of his new cruise friends, all who are about 60-70-80 years older than he is to come. The game is one we play in the afternoons on the atrium and Nicky has become quite fond of it. Kathleen's favorite is Baggo. New games!! A man named Malcom Meyers hosted a party in the large theatre for the entire ship. At one point he invited Nicky up on stage for the entire group to sing happy birthday to him. It was very nice of him. Nicky has become friends with 2 couples from the UK. They are lovely. Barry and Jackie and Stanley and Fiona. The gals are very sweet to him and are very attractive. Both beautiful blonde ladies! Kathleen has made friends with a lady that used to be a math teacher! Margie. Margie and her husband took Kathleen to the lounge where another friend she has made from Budapest is playing his guitar every night. His name is Frankie and has a very thick Hungarian accent. Very nice to the kids but a terrible partner to have during the trivia games that we play on "sea" days twice a day! The kids have really gotten good at that. There are pictures of the day starting with Nicky finding the balloons on his cabin door, to some at his birthday dinner, one of Kathleen with Margie, the blonde Brits that joined us for dinner with their husbands, all the way to Nicky blowing out his candles on the plainest cake the chef could make for him! He hates icing! It was a great day, but a busy day.
We crossed the equator today. HOT! They had a special ceremony for all the people like us that had never sailed over the equator! Glad we were not picked. They took some people and rubbed butter all over them and then Thousand Island Dressing, then some sort of green mush. They had to jump in the pool to rinse off. Those that did not have to do that only had to kiss a fish. It was smelly and ugly though! We have some pictures of that on the other camera and are too pooped to try to add them. We will try tomorrow. Kathleen and I took in a Pilates class today. Fun. They have lots of activities planed while we are at sea. We should be to Fortaleza, Brasil sometime on the 18th. Don't yet know when but all of Brazil is in the middle of their Carnival celebrations so we should be in for a treat seeing all the people dressed up and dancing. They do not give us our schedules for the next day until late. It is almost 9:00p.m. here. I think we are 3 hours ahead of Alabama now. We will start our day with breakfast and home schooling in the morning but the kids always want to be finished by noon on sea days because the first trivia game starts at noon. There have been lectures daily at sea about the areas we are traveling to. The speaker is a guy named Niki Sepsas. He is from HOMEWOOD!!! Still lives there and knows everything you would ever want to know about South America!! He is a good provider of social studies for us! I think both kids will go to dance class tomorrow. They both took a Bridge lesson two days ago and did well. More tomorrow...
We crossed the equator today. HOT! They had a special ceremony for all the people like us that had never sailed over the equator! Glad we were not picked. They took some people and rubbed butter all over them and then Thousand Island Dressing, then some sort of green mush. They had to jump in the pool to rinse off. Those that did not have to do that only had to kiss a fish. It was smelly and ugly though! We have some pictures of that on the other camera and are too pooped to try to add them. We will try tomorrow. Kathleen and I took in a Pilates class today. Fun. They have lots of activities planed while we are at sea. We should be to Fortaleza, Brasil sometime on the 18th. Don't yet know when but all of Brazil is in the middle of their Carnival celebrations so we should be in for a treat seeing all the people dressed up and dancing. They do not give us our schedules for the next day until late. It is almost 9:00p.m. here. I think we are 3 hours ahead of Alabama now. We will start our day with breakfast and home schooling in the morning but the kids always want to be finished by noon on sea days because the first trivia game starts at noon. There have been lectures daily at sea about the areas we are traveling to. The speaker is a guy named Niki Sepsas. He is from HOMEWOOD!!! Still lives there and knows everything you would ever want to know about South America!! He is a good provider of social studies for us! I think both kids will go to dance class tomorrow. They both took a Bridge lesson two days ago and did well. More tomorrow...
1 comment:
Happy Birthday Nick! It sounds like they are treating you right!
We missed you @ PSR last week, but Ms. Barbara really missed your Mom! I gave her your site address so she can follow. I see you are already making new friends. Enjoy this wonderful trip, what an awesome experience!
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