First though, because I was feeling participative because I was feeling so good (no being sick of the sea today!), I attended the ice carving demonstration for the first time this winter. That's our typical M.O.; we try to get to most things (among those that appeal to us) at least once per winter. We don't have to do them all in one cruise.
Jefferson and Napoleon, both from the Philippines, put on an incredible show, demonstrating their talent to not only carve ice beautifully, but to do it quickly, in about 15 minutes. As I've mentioned before, Jefferson's father spent his career as an ice carver for Norwegian Cruise Lines. It's a skill not learned in a school, but passed down from generation to generation.
Wrestling the 300-350 pound blocks of ice into place:
Getting out the tools:
These tools are sharper than any knife (which leads me to assume that Jefferson and Napolean can also sharpen knives):
The pile of ice chips around their feet grew quickly:
Jefferson carving in some of the more finely detailed elements:
The finished products, just 15 minutes later- a fish and a parrot:
We made it to Lunch with Darko in the DaVinci Dining Room about 1pm. Today's lunch menu was our favorite one, and one that we don't see every cruise: breaded mozzarella sticks and macadamia nut ice cream for G, and spaghetti aglio, olio and pepperocino for me. We didn't have long between lunch and the 3pm wine tasting to accomplish much, but I shooed G out of the cabin (he went to a hot tub) so I could get a few work emails out of the way.
We continue to add to our shooter glass collection, a souvenir take-away from every Grapevine wine tasting. Unfortunately, we have several of some of the six designs and none of others, but, since we have no plans for these other than to give them to a friend on the islands, I guess I'm not concerned. As of today, the box from my Birkenstocks is now totally full. I don't know where we'll put the overflow ('cause we might get a couple more before we're done this winter ;-)).
We went to Dinner with Darko early tonight. I'm a bit weary of the lobster that is served on the second formal night (I know, poor me), and so have been branching out a bit on the menu. Last cruise I had the short ribs (way too greasy for me), but this cruise I had one of each of the appetizers (a seafood appetizer, pear with blue cheese crumbles, and escargot with a special blue cheese dinner roll, and then skipped an entree. All this I paired with a glass from a new bottle of 2010 Franciscan Estate merlot that has been featured at our last two wine tastings. Headwaiter Johann served it to us in two Riedel red wine glasses, and G nearly had a heart attack when I filled him in on their value. But wine really does taste better served in them!
We were making our way up to watch the sunset from the Promenade Deck when we happened upon a 6:30pm show by comedian Phil Tag in the Explorers Lounge. He's quite funny, and we stayed until the end, then went directly to the 7:15pm performance of production show What a Swell Party in the Princess Theater. It was a bit of tit for tat; I saw the comedian for G, he saw What a Swell Party for me. I still am not a fan of the Cole Porter music, but I love love love the costumes and choreography.
Afterwards, we walked across the Promenade Deck and saw the most amazing moon (is it full tonight?), golden orange in the black night sky. I couldn't capture it with my iPhone camera, so you'll have to use your imagination...but it was impressive.
We have made a decision; we're not going home this turnaround day, though we do have cancelable flights booked. From this point on, we're taking it cruise by cruise. We're like Punxsutawney Phil on Groundhogs Day. If we see on the news that there's still snow at home, we predict 10 more days of cruising.
;-)