Travel wth friends

Just three days after we returned home from the reunion,
we embarked on an 8 day cruise to the Caribbean. We
departed from Port Canaveral on Saturday on the the ship
Glory.

On Sunday we visited Nassau. We left the ship and walked a
bit, but we were unimpressed. It seemed to be a typical
tourist trap. We enjoyed exploring the ship that day.

Our ship was huge, having 11 decks. It is a floating "summer
camp" for adults. Guests can shop, gamble, play the slots,
attend classes, see Las Vegas type shows or simply sit
and people watch. Actually just sitting and observing the human
show was very interesting.

I think the most maddening part of the cruise was when we
arrived at St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. We had been told
to to report to a certain room at a certain time corresponding
to the exact activity we were going to do on the island. We
went on time, waited for a half hour and no Customs officials
appeared. To make a long story short, we ended in a line of
people wound in and out of rooms, corridors and hallways,
literally several thousand people.

People seem to always disappoint me. Some middle aged man
and his four companions stepped in front of me and I said, "Sir,
you cannot cut in line. You must go to the end of the line just
like we did." His retort was that I could not tell him what to
do and he wpuld stand anywhere he x*x pleased. However, he did
leave us and go somewhere else to get in
line.

St. Thomas is lovely. The water is a beautiful aqua blue and
when we got into the deeper water, it changed into the most
beautiful sapphire blue imaginable. I could look at it for
hours. In fact, I did spend quite some time just watching the
beautiful blue water.

My friend Jura and I left our spouses to their own devices
and we explored the dock area. There must have been twenty
jewelry stores with exorbitant prices. Of course, if one is
truly interested in buying gems, she must play the bargaining
game.

The island has a coastline that extends for less than half a mile
before it becomes mountainous. All the homes are nestled
in little niches cut into the sides of the mountains--more like
tall hills. In some spots the homes were close together and
in others far apart. We would see tiny little houses snuggled
up to very large ones. Some were located next to what seemed
to be large resorts.

The fun came in the late evening, when the light disappeared
and all the lights in the area came on. It looked like it was
decorated with lights in various colors. The little homes
were gone and the lights were the only way we could tell
that the houses were there. I would not have missed that
sight for anything.

It took us 14 hours to reach St. Maarten, one side of which
was French and one the Netherlands. Our ship docked on
the Netherlands side. They warned us to be prepared for
a nude beach if we went to the French side to sightsee.
Several people went over, forgot the warning and were shocked
to see everyone on the beach without clothes.

We took a tour of St. Maarten, rode on a sightseeing tour
up to the top of the mountain and then back to one of the
world's best beaches, according to the Travel Channel.
I think the sand on the beach at St. Armands Key, Sarasota,
Florida is just as wonderful. As you walk that beach the
sand crunches like fine, dry snow. It's great fun to walk
in it. So, of course, was St. Maarten's.

After the outing Dan and I crashed in our cabin and slept
through dinner. We had to go to deck 9 (maybe 10?) to
eat at the buffet there. The food is very good but
there is so much of it, one has a tendency to overeat.

Nowhere have I had better food than in the formal dining
room. The portions are small, but every meal was a
diner's delight. The best cruise ship food I have ever had
was on this ship. It was easy not to overeat and to control
our portions when we ate in the dining room. No one ever
has to go hungry on a cruise ship.

The first three days the sea was very rough, the wind blew
incessantly. Many people were seasick. The first trip we
made on the Glory we felt anything. One would think we
were docked, the ship was so steady. Not so the'
first several days of this trip. Those waves crashing on
the hull of the ship came up ten, twenty feet. They were
wonderful to watch but not so good on the stomachs of
some of the passengers.

The one thing I missed was not seeing a fish. The only
one was the one I saw in a sea gull's mouth as it was
fishing on the sea below my window. I was hoping to
see dolphins, sharks or something.

When we first moved to Florida, people would tell us
that the two greatest days in life would be the day
we bought a boat and the day we sold it. They were
absolutely correct.

I feel a little bit that way about cruises. You are so
excited to get away to the beautiful tropics and oh,
so glad to return to home port. After a while, Dan
and I tired of all the food and were happy to be back
home where food is not quite so plentiful.

I recommend cruising to anyone needing to get away.
It's great not to have to wrestle with the luggage;
they do all of that for you. You get to stay in the
same room all the week--no packing and unpacking
like we do when we travel in the car.