At sea

Mr. Gadget and I have been afloat for 4 days now and we are making good progress on our resting-up project . A typical day at sea for us is to get up around 8, have some coffee (tea for Mr. G), then some breakfast....and then we stake out a couple of deck chairs for the duration.  Since the first couple of days out of L.A. are usually cool this time of year, we opt for the covered pool area where it is usually quite nice--except for a nonstop ping-pong-playing Asian foursome. But if we pick the right chairs, we are far enough away from the noise, yet still well enough situated for a view of the wildlife in the pool.

The weather has been sunny for the most part, and the seas are fairly smooth with alternating slight (1 to 3 ft.) to moderate (4 - 7 ft.) swells.  No Dramamine for us.  And most importantly, no missing of any meals.  We should be arriving in Hilo, on the big island of Hawaii, tomorrow morning.  Mr. G and I have signed up for an excursion to Volcano National Park.

In yesterday's newsletter (the listing of daily activities onboard) there was mention of a needleworker's meet-up in the Promenade Bar at 9:30 a.m.  Fortunately I brought along a mindless-knitting project-- a red garter-stitched scarf--so I made a beeline down to deck 7.  When needleworkers get together there are never any strangers, and the 12 or 15 ladies in the group were friendly and fun.  In fact, we had such a nice time we decided to get together each sea day at the same time in the same place.  That is, unless we get booted out by the bunco ladies.  I hear they can be a bossy lot.

I guess that's it for this time.  I'd better sit for a while and take a little break before dinner. This resting-up is harder than it looks...

Update:  A couple of days have gone by....somehow.....I don't have any idea how that happened.....since I wrote this post about us being afloat.  We have now been and gone from Hilo (where we had a great excursion to the volcano) and we are currently tied to the dock at Honolulu. Since we've been here before,  we are mostly enjoying ourselves on the ship which is like a ghost town.  No loud ping-pong players, no one pushing in line at the buffet, and lots of quiet which is very nap-enabling.  I wonder how much it would cost to charter this thing?