This is a perfect day!

Woke to a beautiful blue sky, puffy white clouds, calm seas, and the soft whoosh of the waves kissing the ship!  This is what cruising is all about - a perfect day of relaxation and refreshing the soul.

A light breakfast of fresh fruit, tea, and a sweet roll was shared with old friends and new.  I had the Infinity Pool and then the hot tub all to myself out on the Aqua Vit Terrace.  Love that feature on all their ships.  Today we actually took a table in the full land glorious sunshine instead of partially under  cover in case the rain started!

What is that old Fred Astaire song - I'm in heaven!

This day keeps getting better and better!  34 teams played the Progressive Trivia and we came in 3rd Place! We were very surprised!  Stunned when they announced us!  We were only a few points out of first place and we did not think we had done that well on any one day.  If we had played our wild card on the day we got 13 out of 15 we would have won!  We were saving it for the last day to improve whatever score we had.  BUT Ian forced us to play it a yesterday because he had plans to change to Pub Trivia for the final round.  We had the second highest score for that so it surely helped.  The Harry Potter category killed us.  The other team had all of those correct and we had only two.  But
well done' as Ian would say.  Our team is meeting at the choir performance to share our prize bottle of bubbly!

Elva and I took full advantage of this being an all veranda ship and just enjoyed sailing.  We had our cheese plate and left over crackers form yesterday's breakfast and split a Sprite from our mini-fridge while enjoying reading on the balcony. 

The crystal clear waters let us know we are in the Caribbean.  I texted my brother, Big Doug, to say I was thinking of him. That shade of blue water with the white foam reminds me of Michigan Mints and he always liked those.  Hard to find them now-a-days.

We met our friends and enjoyed our toast to our success.  The choir sang beautifully.   Elva's brother, Allan and his wife Mary were in it as were their friends Phil and Rosemary.  The four of them met in the church choir back in Houston.

 Judy and Manny

Sandy, Richard, Elva, me, Manny, Judy

I invited Judy and Manny, also from Houston, to come to dinner with us and we had a nice round table for eight at the back of the restaurant with a nice view of the sea.  We were seated promptly and it was, for me, the best meal I have had.  Just good old meat and potatoes,  The perfectly cooked pork chop was not too big or too small and had a delicious sauce of dark beer and maple syrup.  It was perfect on the mash, as chef's now like to say.  The conversation was lively as they all compared notes on good restaurants and grocers in Texas.  A lot of rivalry in the barbecue department!

Elva in front, Phil, Rosemary, Mary, Allan, me, Judy, and Manny in The Restaurant

Elva and I went up to watch and Agatha Christie movie, Crooked House.  A full pool deck for the first time for the movie.  It was like some people just discovered it was an option.  Or they were not interested in the Brazilian singer who had a second performance tonight after being quarantined for two days!  It started to rain so I left as they began to close the roof.  No popcorn tonight anyway.

I stopped to get my go cups of tea for the night and spilled one.  Luckily I had a beach towel in hand so was mopping up when Drew came along and then Robin Petch,the wildlife lecturer.  We all three had a nice chat before I headed to the cabin since we have an early start tomorrow and Drew had to do the end of show announced in the main theater.

I was surprised that Elva was back in the room already.  Since so many had come for the show they had run out of head sets so watching with distracting noises like pool grill clean up and pool sloshing was not making it enjoyable for her.  I left because it seemed like the kind of movie I would just as soon see on my own TV.  And so good night!