Day 124: Ocho Rios, Jamaica

When was the last time we did something for the first time?

Well, two days ago, of course, watching the Broncos win Super Bowl 50 on the Emerald Princess (that's me, never missing an opportunity to say that again).  But, we did it again today, with our first-ever visit to Ocho Rios, on Jamaica's north coast, and yet again when we climbed the famous Dunns River Falls. 

At the end of every cruise, Princess emails us a survey about our cruise experience. And I dutifully spend about 20 minutes every turnaround day, while I have free AT&T Internet, to answer it. One of the questions asks about the importance of each port on the itinerary in the decision to choose that particular cruise. I would wager that the instrument has yet to be invented that can measure the lack of interest the passengers on this cruise had in visiting Jamaica. 

Jamaica has an awful reputation, mostly well-deserved, about its crime and aggressive local attitude. We'd only visited the island twice before, both times stopping in Montego Bay, about 70 miles west of Ocho Rios, also on the island's north coast. We had done ship excursions on both visits (river tubing and zip-lining) and came away with favorable impressions of the excursions but less than favorable impressions of the island. We resigned ourselves to this one stop in Ocho Rios this winter, but wondered if it would change our impressions of the island. 

We certainly thought Ocho Rios (Ochi to the locals) was nicer than Montego Bay. The locals seemed a bit more laid back, the port area was definitely an improvement and the hills overlooking the city were very picturesque. Hiwever, the weather again refused to cooperate. It was cloudy and very windy, and occasional rain showers passed over. But we were determined to get off the ship and see Dunns River Falls.

The Moon Palace Resort in Ocho Rios

Our scheduled arrival was early again today, at 7am, and we were barely awake when we heard the announcement that we had arrived. Unlike yesterday's announcement about the closure of the Georgetown port that came directly into our cabin, this one is only heard in public areas and hallways. It's easy to sleep through, but today we were nearly awake already. We dressed and went to breakfast in the DaVinci Dining Room and planned our packing list for the day. 

Our huge wind continued 

We had heard from a fellow cruiser that admission to Dunns River Falls was free and that there are only charges for extra activities, like zip lining. We now know how wrong that is, but, going on that premise and the fact that petty thievery is a huge issue in Jamaica, we decided to take just enough money with us to get there and return via taxi, and have a drink or two at the bar we had heard overlooks the falls, where we could sit and watch others make the climb up the 600 foot stepped waterfall after we did.

We left the ship and walked down the not-short pier to the cruise ship terminal, and bypassed the small buses offering rides to Dunnss River Falls for $10pp, and smaller taxis offering it for $40. After we exited the security gates surrounding the port, we were approached immediately by a taxi driver who gave me a bad vibe. We declined his services and continued on. We were next asked by Peter (contact information to be filled in tomorrow) if we wanted a ride or a tour and decided he was our man. 

For $30 round trip, Peter drove the short distance to Dunns River Falls and waited for us while we entered the park and climbed the falls. The problem was that the admission to the park was not free, but was instead $20pp. This totally depleted our planned drink money, but we still climbed the falls. Instead of joining a hand-holding group, as seemed to be the practice, we just set off io our own, skipping the phot ops and picking our way up the stair-stepped rocks of the falls. 

I had worried a little about this. I had heard horror stories of slippery rocks and nasty stumbles, but I think we did better by going it alone. The only issue we had was that the river water was not clear, and we sometimes had to feel our way up the stones with our feet. And occasionally the step up was so high that it took a three point stance to climb it. But, we survived with our relationship in tact and no bodily injury. Go us!

We had enough extra money to tip the 'singing guys' at the park entrance.  These were two (occasionally three) guys who played a guitar and (occasionally) maracas and the most ingenious of all bass instruments: a wooden box about 2 feet by 1 foot with a 6 inch hole in the front covered with 7 pieces of metal of varying lengths, all attached by screws at the bottom. By plucking these metal strips, various bass notes were played, while at the same time the wooden box provided a seat for the musician. Cool!

Peter met us at the agreed upon time and, with our remaining $10, drove us up to Shaw Park for a view of the Emerald Princess docked in Ochi harbor. Just above this lookout is a huge house owned by Mick Jagger. Or so they say. ;-) Of course, no one can say with certainty that Mr. Jagger has visited there in the last decade. But it's one of several homes he owns. 

Of course, all along the way we were offered various forms of pot ("Jamaican is the best!"), the most clever advertising being the man standing on the road up to Shaw Park holding a sign saying 'BROWNIES', with a little green marijuana leaf drawn just above it. If this sort of thing bothers you, you've been warned. 

The day had never been a pretty one, overcast and fairly humid, but we were spared any downpours. We did encounter mosquitos while climbing the falls under the damp cover of a rainforest, but had sprayed ourselves with ample amounts DEET 50 before we began. We returned to the Emerald Princess about 2pm and cleaned up with a shower before going to the Horizon Court Buffet for lunch. 

We encountered our first really inedible food of the cruise today. Caribbean roti wraps that were hard as rocks and a veal roast that required a sharper knife to cut. But we found plenty to eat (I had a big salad) and then followed it with ice cream and strawberry sauce from the Scoops ice cream counter. Yummy!

We had time for just a quick hot tub visit before sailaway, but were chased inside by the first downpour of the day. No matter; by then it was 4pm and time to start getting ready for dinner. Tonight was the single Captains Circle party for this cruise, at 7:15pm. We were honored to be the #3 MTP, and Bob and Candy joined us for this last hurrah with #2 MTP Phyllis. We then joined Phyllis in the DaVinci Dining Room for dessert and coffee, which we had skipped to get to the party 15 minutes early, as we are asked to do when we're in the top three MTPs (which also gives us time to get our first drink order in early!). 

The weather tonight required that the Love Boat Disco Deck Party be moved from the open deck to Club Fusion, but that didn't stop us from attending. A few line dances, the 'Isaac', and a sing along of the Love Boat theme song later, we are tucked into bed. 

The relaxed Emerald Princess dancers, just before performing for Love Boat Disco Deck Party. 

I will never remember how I made it to the end of this post!!!  I'll add photos tomorrow...or the next day. I fear it's going to be another 'getting hit in the nose with the iPad' night unless I end this right NOW. 

Day 123: Grand Cayman

Our scheduled arrival time in Grand Cayman today was at 7am, and shortly before then we were awakened by the familiar ding-dong of an announcement coming into our cabin. Even in our half-sleep, when we heard Captain Forteeze's voice asking for our attention, we knew something was up. Sure enough...the Port Authority had closed the port of Georgetown on the west coast of Grand Cayman, the location where ships' tenders usually dock. Instead, the Emerald Princess was being re-routed to anchor off of Spott's Bay, on the southern coast of the island.

This was a new one for us. G quickly tuned the TV to the 'front of the ship' channel and I grabbed my iPad to see, on the Grand Cayman map I'd downloaded using the Maps.me app, just where Spott's Bay was. The webcam showed weather that looked grey, but we didn't see any raindrops on the camera lens.  As we had no firm plans for the day, the port change didn't really bother us. 

We usually tender into Georgetown (follow the finger). Today we tendered into Spott's Bay; where the blue arrow is. 

Fully awake by then, we took quick showers (that felt sooo good after yesterday) and went to breakfast in the DaVinci Dining Room. Getting food for yesterday's breakfast in the Horizon Court Buffet had reminded me of one of my favorite breakfasts at home, peanut butter on toast, and I ordered it for breakfast today after a bowl of orange segments. (Except at home I eat peanut butter toast made into a sandwich with lots of iceberg lettuce layered in it, thanks to Dad, but I didn't feel confident that I'd be able to convey the 'iceberg' part of the lettuce to Thai waiter Worwut and so just stopped at the peanut butter and toast). 

Naturally, our discussion turned to yesterday's game and I can promise you that the 'morning after' felt a lot better this time than it did two years ago. I so clearly remember Darko (yes, that one) the day after the Broncos humiliating defeat, spotting me from the other side of the Horizon Court Buffet, crossing over through the galley and hugging me, telling me "We will never speak of this again". Gosh darn it, I wish Darko was here right now, so we could speak of this, instead. 

Meanwhile, G has stopped by the Passenger Services Desk on the way to breakfast, getting a copy of our onboard spending statement, and handed it to me when I arrived, saying something didn't look right. Well, it certainly didn't, by a significant amount, and when we returned to our cabin after breakfast, G took a stab at reconciling what it said today back to what it said two days ago, on turnaround day. His Accounting background failed him, and he handed it over to me. 

Now this is just NOT what one wants to do on a cruise, but we also didn't want to wait until the last day of this cruise, on Wednesday, to be dealing with it, either. The last day of a cruise and the first day of the next cruise are notoriously busy days at the Passenger Services Desk. With the next cruise being only four days long, this really couldn't wait. 

That is how I found myself also trying to figure out our statement, and also getting nowhere. The funny thing is that the way the on board statements are reported have changed for back to back cruises. Instead of each cruise standing on its own, with just the balance carried forward from one cruise to the next, every statement we see goes back to when we boarded on January 4. When the statement at the end of the second cruise was delivered to our room on turnaround day morning, January 18, and I saw that it went back to the beginning, I almost tossed the statement we'd received at the end of the first cruise. Something in my accountant's mind told me not to, and that made all the difference today. 

Finally today, in my attempts to reconcile, I went back to January 4, and ticked off every spending item for both of us, day by day. Shockingly, $206 in credits from the first two cruises had disappeared all together, and a postdated charge from last cruise had been applied erroneously. The discrepancy is not small, and it's very confusing to explain.

While I was ticking and tying, G decided to get out of my hair (his words) and take a tender to shore just to see what was there so we could make some plans for the rest of the day. When I had figured out what the errors were, I took advantage of most passengers being in port and went down to the PSD to present my case. (It's still being researched). I returned to the cabin, and shortly thereafter G also returned, looking a bit green. This was different; he's never gotten seasick before.  He said that people had actually gotten sick on the tender to shore and he had gotten queasy on the way back. When I asked if we would be going over again later, he flatly declined. 

It must have been really, really bad. 

In fact, it was so bad that most (all?) of the water excursions for the day had been cancelled. Though it never rained hard, it did occasionally mist a little. But I think the wind and the swells are what really caused the issues. 

So this turned into a sea day for me, a not unwelcome one at all. We went to lunch in the Horizon Court Buffet, and decided to use a hot tub afterward, but when we returned to the cabin to change for it, G quickly fell asleep. With some time on my hands, I pulled the box of hair color out from my roll aboard suitcase under the bed (aka the toiletries storage closet) and went to work taking care of that task.

I'm actually quite proud of how well I'm handling that these days, in a tiny cruise ship bathroom.  I tuck the shower curtain behind the shower head to get it out of the way, remove the bath towels from their rack (because both of these things would get colored if I didn't), then, after the color is applied, sit on the toilet lid reading a book on my iPad for 30 minutes. Easy peasy. When I am done rinsing off the color in the shower, if my hair is Dark Blonde (Golden) while the shower curtain and towels are still white, I know it was a successful effort.  And today it was.  

G was stirring by the time I'd finished, and decided to fit in a trip to a hot tub after all, while I took the time to get ready for the evening. As I was later waiting for him to do the same, I caught most of the Super Bowl post game show and the awarding of the Lombardi trophy on ESPN. If I'd had DVR capability, I'd still be sitting here watching it, over and over and over again. 

We are so spoiled at dinner by Victor and Darko (not that one). G took the last sip of his Coke and within five seconds it was removed and a fresh glass set in front of him. I would worry about how we'll transition to being home, but this is not our first year of extended cruising. We'll cope. It won't be pretty, and the first week will be downright ugly. But we'll cope. 

We ate lightly, and quickly; because this cruise's MTP cocktail party was held at 7pm in the Adagio Lounge (cutoff was 318 days). They serve such nice hors doerves at these parties, but, having just come from dinner, it was easy to say 'no thank you'...at least until the dessert items were offered. We sat with Bob and Candy, and Phyllis, along with Chief Roddy and had a fun time chatting until the others had to leave for dinner. Bob, Candy and Phyllis all leave next turnaround day; Chief Roddy goes on vacation the turnaround after that. I think we're going to have some lonely days in our future. We will miss them!

G stayed in Adagio a bit longer to listen to Ryszard Sulek play the piano, but I returned to the cabin to attend to evening ablutions. I love it when I can get those done before G returns. I am not unlike the Bill Pullman character in the movie Sleepless in Seattle, creating an entire concert of brushing and water pik-ing and sniffing and snorting and inhaling and gargling until I'm finally ready for bed. As I've said before, at home we live the way God intended couples to live, with separate bathrooms, and G is spared the details of this nighttime routine. It's better that way. 

We skipped all entertainment tonight (comedian Carl Banks performed twice in the Princess Theater), as we did last night (production show Magic To Do). I now have the entire final season of Downton Abbey on my iPhone, and several new books to read. After spending almost 16 hours on a pool deck yesterday, some down time in the cabin is just what I need. 

Day 122 (continued): Super Bowl at sea

I'll be very honest here; I was pushing hard last week for us to go home on the last turnaround day, only to be able to watch the Super Bowl in the midst of friends, or holed up In the family room with a fire in the fireplace accompanied by a delivery pizza and a Bud Light Lime (or three). Because, let's face it...Super Bowl spectatorship on a cruise ship, when one actually cares about the outcome, is a grueling thing. Last year, on the Grand Princess when I didn't like either team, it was easy. About an hour before the game, we went to the Explorers Lounge and sat on a comfy sofa and watched the game in a very civilized fashion. But this year...

Second, let's get this out of the way:  I knew the Broncos were the underdog in this fight. 5 1/2 points was the accepted wisdom. But Denver lasted a month longer this season that I thought they would, and I vowed to be happy with that. My expectation was just that they play better than two years ago (so I set the bar pathetically low). And, as with so much in life, things go easier when I underexpect. 

So, back to yesterday morning, being awakened by the alarm going off at 6:30...

G threw on some clothes and hightailed it to the Calypso Pool area; I took the time to take a shower and insert contacts before following him. I was packed for the day:  besides my backpack with its usual contacts lens and asthma emergency gear, I had a bag filled with sunscreens, water bottles, sunglasses, gum, iDevices, and yes, maybe a minibottle of gin. 

In the still darkness, I could see G had claimed two loungers up one level in Deck 16. There were no loungers set up yet on Deck 15, but as soon as two were set in place, in the most perfectly primo location, my fanny was in one of them 3.7 seconds. It was 7:07am. Score!

And then the reality set in...it was 11 1/2 hours until kickoff. It was downright cold. And windy. And although we had seen a little bit of a sunrise, it quickly turned cloudy and started to rain. Pool towels had not even been set out yet, and we pulled our loungers back a foot or two where they were partially covered to try to stay as dry as possible, but with the wind, it was a lost cause. 

But we are die hards. I love the Broncos and my husband loves me and so there we sat, side by side, miserable and snappy. There were three other equally committed couples out there with us, and they were also determined to stay where they were despite the rain. 

Fortunately, the rain was only intermitting until about noon, when it stopped for longer periods of time. We followed our usual routine; first one of us went to get some breakfast food and bring it back to the loungers, and then the other did. Bathroom breaks and coffee warm ups were similarly spaced. At some time, Phyllis came by and said she wanted (or was willing) to join us, and the two became three, which made taking brief breaks that much simpler. 

Thank you God (!!!) that this year we were not subjected to watching the Wake Show for four hours, nor the Grand Princess revitalization documentary (prior views: 322 times), nor the 2-hour European history documentary (prior views:  6 times). Instead, MUTS featured a slide show of the top 1000 travel photos taken by Princess passengers accompanied by soft music, and that was perfect. It was fun to try to guess where they had been taken. Then those damn talking animals on that BBC documentary appeared, but I didn't even find them quite as excruciating this year. 

Finally, at 10am, the movie The Blind Side was shown, and those two hours passed quickly and entertainingly. Except this time I didn't fry at the end...was it possible I was just so much more laid back than I had been two years ago when Denver played in the Super Bowl?  I think so. I had really put it largely out of my mind in the past two weeks, my eyelid had stopped twitching and I was feeling fairly mellow. 

The crowd was continuing to gather. I can't say exactly when the last of the chairs were taken. There is a tremendous amount of chair relocation that takes place in the hours leading up to a game like the Super Bowl. Even though we were settled, we were constantly on guard for people sliding into our sight line, and we made small adjustments to route those people walking through to be behind us, instead of in front of us. 

At 3pm, the movie Draft Day was shown, but I had trouble hearing it (there were some loud talkers just behind me) and so actually closed my eyes and rested/slept for 45 minutes until I was awakened when it started to rain again. That little break went a long way to making me feel refreshed, the rain didn't last long, and that was the last precipitation we saw until the very end of the game. Yay!!

Meanwhile, we ate a couple pieces of pizza (the lines were soooooooo long) and drank, but just a little (I had one minibottle of gin in Sprite Zero and G nursed one beer) and I think some cookies were consumed somewhere along the way and a bag of popcorn, but it really didn't turn into too much of a junk food fest, and I think that kept us feeling better. 

After my short nap, when it started to rain, I returned to the cabin and changed into my yoga pants and sneakers and socks in an effort to stay warm. I had been wearing a heavy fleece almost the entire day. While we had had sun for about 10 minutes, the day had largely been chilly and windy and damp. But dressed in what I call my 'traveling clothes', and wrapped in towels (there weren't nearly enough blankets to go around), I stayed comfortable to the end. We talked about it later, how many times the same towels had to be laundered yesterday. Between the three of us, we probably used 20 pool towels. As it rained and they got wet, we'd replace them with new ones, usually still warm from the dryer. 

A tailgate party was set up by the Calypso Pool, with burgers and pizza and wings and chips and salsa. Others may have been set up in Explorers Lounge and Club Fusion and the Conference Room, where the game was also shown (along with the casino). There were certainly plenty of places to watch the game, but, despite its hardships, there is something special about watching it on MUTS. We did the math...of the past 12 Super Bowls, we've watched all but one of them on a Princess ship, starting in 2005 on the Grand Princess on this new thing called MUTS. 

By 5:15pm or so, we started to see some pre-game coverage, but only got the video. The audio was just music, but it was upbeat and loud and kept us going. Still, by the time Lady Gaga sang the national anthem (beautifully, I might add), we were acutely aware of the fact that we had already spent over 11 hours in the elements and who knew what emotional roller coaster was ahead. Still, because it was a much cooler day than we had two years ago when the Emerald Princess was in Barbados on Super Bowl Sunday, with almost no sun, we were tired but not exhausted. And fervently hoping that the Broncos would at least show up this time around. 

For a non-fan, the game must have been very boring.  It certainly lacked any offensive excitement (heck, it lacked any offense at all), but the score was kept close enough that the game had lots of tension for us until the third quarter.  Gun shy, I didn't let myself start to relax until the Broncos were up by 14, but by then the spectacle changed from watching the score to watching Cam Newton's sacks.

At the end, I'd did fry, just a little. It's not often that the good guy wins, and, despite that fact that he played like a 39-year old QB, Peyton Manning is a good guy. That the crowd around the Calypso Pool was so heavily favoring the Broncos showed that other people think so too. Phyllis stayed with us until the very end, and cheered as hard for the Broncos as I did, despite the fact she is a diehard Giants fan. As she explained it, she loves Eli and was rooting for Peyton and so was a Broncos fan with only one degree of separation today. Thank you Phyllis!  You made the day so much more fun. 

My only disappointment was that the feed was cut off at the end of the game and we missed the post game and the presentation of the Lombardi trophy. I've since caught a little of it on ESPN in our room, but will have to wait until we return home to binge watch the online video coverage of it. 

It was midnight before I finally fell asleep. Waking this morning, I felt the effects of yesterday. But, as I said to G at breakfast, we would have felt the effects whether the Broncos won or lost. Wasn't it so much better this way?  We watched our favorite team win Super Bowl 50 on our favorite large ship, probably watching Peyton Manning play his last down of professional football. We'll never forget that day. Never. 

 If God is not a Bronco, then why are sunsets orange?

Life is good. :-)

Day 122: The day the Broncos won Super Bowl 50

Life is good. :-)

Day 121: Fort Lauderdale (turnaround day)

Have I told you how much we're enjoying these short cruises?  I know I have, but have I told you lately?

It was quite a revelation for us when we first discovered that last winter in the Caribbean Princess, but, on our favorite Emerald Princess, we're loving them even more, and not least because of our frequent days in Fort Lauderdale. It's a bit like having one foot at home...and one on a cruise. It's really the best of both worlds. And we love the energy and excitement each sailaway brings. 

So, instead of dreading turnaround days, we're loving them. Today, as we always do in Fort Lauderdale, we set our alarm but were awake long before it sounded, around 6:15am today; as the Emerald Princess docked at Pier 2. Good grief, it was great to back at that pier again. Life is just so much easier when we are. We were in the Botticelli Dining Room shortly after it opened at 6:30am, and, an hour later, we settled ourselves in the Adagio Lounge with one extension cord and two chargers and made phone calls and paid bills and booked an upcoming excursion and had general internet fun and games. 

We kept hearing announcements that disembarkation was getting further and further behind because of immigration delays, so, about 9:30am, we gathered up our required documentation (ship cards, in transit cards, completed customs form, passports and Global Entry cards) and walked off the ship into the maze of people in the terminal. 

I said to the Drake employee directing people at the bottom of the escalator, "We are in transit, have no luggage, and have Global Entry cards and a completed customs form with us" and those words were like magic. Not only did we bypass the lines, we were personally escorted to the head of the immigration line and were through it in 30 seconds. Our Global Entry cards may have cost $110 for five years, but their value to us is priceless. We eliminate at least 30 minutes of waiting in line every turnaround day.  

Our first stop was the top of the 17th Street drawbridge. We wanted to see the six cruise ships in port today and also watch all the non-commercial boat traffic on the intercostal on a Saturday. Just for exercise; we continued down the other side of the bridge and back up and over again. Though it was mostly sunny when we first walked off the ship, we soon felt a very misty rain start to fall, and, with an eye toward that dark cloud in the southwest, didn't dawdle any longer. 

There were six ships in Port Everglades today; just five are seen in this photo. From left:   the HAL Westerdam, a Carnival ship (the Valor?), the Oasis OTS, the Emerald Princess and the Celebrity Constellation, partially hidden behind the Emerald. 

It's always fun to watch the drawbridge open, and then watch to see which boat necessitated it. In this case, it was a tall masted sailboat.

Our next stop was Walgreens, to purchase a few items we needed (Hair color!  I could tell without looking at a calendar that we've been here for almost five weeks). The rain picked up on our walk there, and, not knowing if it was going to get worse, we didn't dawdle in Walgreens, either. We walked back to the Emerald Princess through the rain, once again willing the cardboard carton on G's case of Mountain Dew to hold up until we reached the ship. By 11:30am, we were back in our cabin, dropping off our purchases and organizing the minibar and paperwork for this cruise that had arrived in our absence. 

I took to lunch one of the 375ml bottles of Chardonnay that we had been gifted in our 'party in a bag' a few cruises ago. It was perfect with the seafood starter and salmon I had, and I enjoyed a cheese plate for dessert while G had an orange soufflé with banana ice cream and citrus cream (it was all fruit, no?). I was feeling quite relaxed when I walked off the ship after lunch to try to download more episodes of Downton Abbey and some magazines using the Port Everglades wifi. 

Unfortunately, I could not get on wifi until nearly 3pm, so I spent some time making phone calls and downloading those things I could using AT&T Internet.  Finally, I was able to get on the wifi (I think that most of the crew had to be on board at 3pm), and started burning it up trying to download six new episodes of Downton, including the final episode that hasn't yet been shown on US TV. Just as happened before, I was watching episode after episode download, willing them to go faster. At 3:26pm, I was given the word that I was only one who still hadn't boarded, and needed to do so. I wasn't certain until I was back on the ship if the last two episodes had finished downloading. They had!

I did my usual shower routine and dressed for dinner during the muster drill announcement, then joined G on the Terrace Deck to watch sailaway. 

The HAL Westerdam sailed first, and those watching the Port Everglades webcam might have seen the camera zoomed in on an officer couple locked in a kiss. I wonder what that was about?

Dinner was delicious but quick. I had the pasta shells with spicy tomato sauce topped with chicken breast and finished off the last of a bottle of Bordeaux...and had flourless chocolate cake for dessert, of course. We made it to the 7pm Welcome Aboard show and, sitting in the front row, were thrilled to be spotted by comedian guitarist Dan Riley. He had a great embarkation night show and once again really hit it out of the park. His show very much appeals to us baby boomers, but his musical parodies would appeal to anyone. 

We came out of the Princess Theater and stopped in the Piazza to watch another balance performer do a 10 minute show (sorry, I'll have to fill in his name tomorrow). And that marked the end of another fantastic Fort Lauderdale turnaround day. We are skipping the Quest game tonight with DCD Frenchie to go to bed early. My backpack is stuffed with supplies, and the alarm clock is set. We have a long, long day tomorrow awaiting the Super Bowl in a lounger by the MUTS screen. If we're lucky, it will be cloudy. If we're unlucky, it will be hot and sunny. If we're really unlucky, it will rain. 

But if that sends our luck to the Broncos in San Francisco, I hope it pours!

:-)