I am so happy tonight. There's no doubt that I'm on the mend, tomorrow's weather forecast for Fort Lauderdale is perfect (83 degrees and mostly sunny), we just spent the most wonderful hour sitting on the Terrace Deck watching the moon (is it full tonight?) reflecting off the water AND we still have 10 more days of cruising ahead of us.
Life is soooo good! :-)
I've also come a long way from three days ago, when I told G I thought that, if I wasn't going to get well soon, I might as well go home tomorrow. Thankfully, even if he hadn't discouraged that radical action, the winter weather moving across the US did. We're staying put. It's going to be a great cruise!
G was up early this morning, and went out to the Terrace Deck to get two lounge chairs, then ran back inside to make sure I was up NOW, because the sun was "fixin' to rise". It waited until I got dressed in a swimsuit and coverup, and got out there, before it rose in most beautiful fashion, slightly obscured by clouds at the horizon that quickly dissipated.
Also already situated in the adjacent lounge chairs were Shari and Marty from Cruise Critic. Shari had emailed me that she was following this blog, and I was so disappointed to have missed the meet and greet on the first sea day of this cruise (doctor visit #1 of the cruise). How lucky that I met her today, and we spent a most enjoyable morning comparing these parallel lives that we seem to be living, 1000 miles apart.
The morning again grew quickly hot, and the sun was unrelenting. We coped with frequent dips in the Terrace Pool, but by noon we were cooked for the day. G and I showered and went to lunch in the dining room, where I took one look at our waiter and said, "I know you", which for most of the waitstaff, isn't all that impressive after four months, but I remembered this waiter from a previous winter. As it turned out, his name is Darko from Macedonia, and he just joined the ship again this cruise for the first time since he was on the Emerald two winters ago. He is a cutie (looks like a thinner Tim Tebow), but even if I hadn't remembered his face, it's hard to forget a Darko from Macedonia. So...we lose crew friends every turnaround day, but familiar faces keep arriving.
Following lunch, I did an iPhone backup on my laptop (see how good I am being about that!), even though I took all of about 50 photos over the last ten days. Then it was time for this cruise's wine tasting (we're still trying to get starfish and anchor shot glasses to complete the set we gave Martha, but no luck). We've learned so much about wine this winter from sommelier Thai, and that's not something I'd anticipated after years of Princess wine tastings. Things like a screw top is called a Stelvin (sp?) top, and the space between the wine and the top of the bottle is the ullage.
And, finally, it was time for dinner. G wanted me to mention that his New York strip steak was the best one he's had all winter (and my salmon was good too). It was Baked Alaska night, which means it was toasted merengue night for me.
I simply can't imagine a winter of cruises without Sutti. I think he's ruined us for life.
Afterward, entertainment options were light. You know my feelings about a Thai dance-less crew show, band Sol Provider wasn't playing until 11:15pm (really!), and the Emerald Princess orchestra wasn't playing anywhere tonight. Instead, we went out to the Terrace Deck, ordered drinks and sat and watched the moonlight on the water and ship's wake. It was a perfect evening!
It's hard to believe that tomorrow is our last turnaround day of the winter. Are we ready to go home? Not yet, but I will be by the last day of this cruise. (Notice I didn't say that G will be). I think that 120 days is really the perfect amount of time, not one cruise too short or too long. For three winters now we've extended our time at sea over the previous year, but, I think we finally got it juuuusssstttt riiiijugggghhhhtttt.
Photo 1: Tee hee hee, one last time
Photos 2-5: our view this evening
