Hi,
Looks like the weather at home is warming up. Less shoveling, eh boys?
Hope all is well. Carl, put the cat food up somewhere where the cats can still jump to get it but not Moustache. He shouldn't be eating cat food, he should eat his own! What a schnook. Hope you are having fun with him. Paul, hope all is Ok at home. I forgot to bring down the orchids from my bathroom, so if you could water them once every 3 weeks that would be good-just a little warm water, to prevent them from drying up completely. Thanks. Hope everyone is doing OK otherwise.
So... here goes (I am so behind I'm starting to forget already!!!!)
Things are busy. I am always thinking that on ' sea days' I will sit down and catch up, then i end up doing a whole bunch of things and the day just flies by and then it's time for bed already. Dad has left this job to me, so even though I might find him in the library, which is much larger than we expected and very nice, if I don't do it, well... this is what happens!
January 7th - Grand Cayman
We went on an excursion and played with wild stingrays - that's right - we petted them, and handled them, and even sort of hugged/picked one up. They came in all sizes, and ages, even one pregnant one. They were wild stingrays, but because of years of the fishermen coming in and cleaning their fish in this spot just inside the reef (so the stingrays ate this ' free feast'), they apparently got used to coming when they heard boat motors. So when we anchored the boat, within minutes there were about 30-40 of them waiting. They are only allowed to be fed a certain amount now, and only by the boat operators, because apparently according to a study (and the marine biologist who has been studying them happened to be right next to our boat, and was actually catching and recording the specs on some that day!!!) they are getting a bit fat, so I guess this is the equivalent of going on a diet. Anyway, as the guide said - they were just like puppies. There were several big ones, and one in particular swam right up my side and nearly knocked me over (it weighed around 90 lbs so must have been a female as the males are smaller). Even Dad petted some! It was very exciting, and we were surprised at how gentle and friendly they actually were. Then we went a bit further to a reef and snorkeled around there for about an hour, and then we went back to the ship.
By then it was almost time to get ready for supper. After supper we went to a show - the comedian was very good. Then it was time for bed.
Did I tell you that they lost Dad's luggage? He has it now though, but we didn't want to say anything before so you wouldn't fret - we did enough of that! Anyway, he was without one of his suitcases, naturally the one with all his underwear (among other things) for 7 days. We finally got it the night we transited the panama canal, at the last lock. In the meantime, we had to wash out what he wore to come from home, until they finally supplied him with a pkg of 3 underwear, and 2 T- shirts ( which he gets to keep BTW). As we had a formal night, they also loaned him a tuxedo for that evening. I think Dad handled it better than I did - so it was a good thing it was his luggage they lost and not mine, or you can imagine what things would have been like. Dad says it shows that we could have travelled with less stuff (at least now he says that, but at the time it wasn't funny).
Anyway, all is Ok now, except they broke his brand new suitcase, and it sure must have been bashed around a lot because there quite a bit of surface damage. They took it to their repair place on board ship and repaired it, and it is usable again, but it will always have the reminder of this first trip now. (They broke the main zipper pull and the locks - still waiting to get the 2 TSA locks replaced). So there was another piece of excitement for us.
We also did our first load of laundry on board - they have Maytag machines here (top loaders), but they are older ones. Still work OK. Dad is actually planning on doing another load tomorrow as he plans to just get off and check out the town then get back on board while I am away on an excursion.
And the washing machines & driers are free to use - yay! We still have to hang up the stuff that can't go into the drier, so we have this pull out clothesline thingy in the bathroom that we use, as well as putting stuff on plastic hangers that we brought (what didn't get broken) and hanging those up all over our room.
Speaking of our room - we love it! We have a walk in closet that is almost as big as ours at home, and dad is thrilled that the bathroom has a full-size bathtub, as well as a shower. This is the nicest cabin we have ever had (and also the most expensive!). We also have a loveseat, small glass table, and chair, as well a a built in desk and our bed with 2 night tables. if you go to http://www.hollandamerica.com/ you can look at it by finding the Prinsendam and then cabins and then one with the large window - they actually have a small video of the type of cabin (category E). Have you looked at the live webcam at the front of the boat???? It is on the same website for the Prinsendam, and shows you where we are going from a camera mounted at the bow of the boat. It's like being here with us (sort of, anyway)! It was especially interesting when we went through the Panama Canal, so keep checking, but after around 6 pm it starts to get dark and then there is nothing to see!
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