Catching Up

For January 11, I gave you a calendar page of activities during a sea day. Since there is a similarity and regularity of sea days, pretty much across the board of cruise lines, I am going to give you a snapshot of the 12th and 13th! What is exceptioinal on Viking is the educational aspect. So many speakers with such a broad range of topics that we hate to miss any opportunities. Celebriity has great speakers but not the same type of in depth programming. Of course having a plethora of sea days, Viking was careful to curate appropriate subjects and dynamic presenters. So here we go on a whirlwind two days! On Wednesday a talk on the place these islands played in History. Keep in mind that they are closely connected to Hawaii,although a different archipelago but all Polynesian. They are also positioned off the coast of South America and on the way to Australia and even include New Zealand. We especially enjoy Patrick Goodson and his blending of ancient religions and myths and how they grew to be, and relate to, and parrallel, the Judeo - Christian norm in which I exist. They also have great similarities to the beliefs of Islam and in many cases the other major religions in one way or another. Fascinating coralations. Today Italian is the meal theme and the lasagna was delicious at lunch to fuel my afternoon beginning with our 12:15 trivia. Although we didn't think we knew anything about movies, we actually do. We won! No prizes ever except pride of place. The day's highlight was the Crossing of the Equator! The ceremony was by the main pool and very pared down from ones we have experienced in the past. (This was my fifth ship crossing.) Covid protocols are every tight, as I have said, and we are grateful. When it came time to 'kiss the fish' the poor little thing was wearing a mask!

The Aquavite toast was a killer. Ask Uncle Google about Norwegian Aquavite and you will know why. We were heading to learn more about the geology of the Marquesas and on the way met Helen having Tea Time so we stopped to chat, had tea with no sandwiches or desserts. Just as Helen left and we were finishing our cuppa, Dean came along and began her tea and chat. When she left we realized we were too late for our talk. We will watch it later in the room. Dean is especially interesting as she is so well traveled and has a remarkable memory of places and experiences. She was telling us that our Tahiti snorkel beach could be this one or that. It might be at the Sofitel Hotel, whose beach she likes, or The Intercontinental which has a rockier beach. She has been to the island several times! We did get to the 6:00 Russell Lee talk about Bruce Lee, to whom he bears a resemblance. If I asked you to name a martial arts person you would probably name him. Remarkably he made only 4 movies and died at the age of 32. His son, Brandon, followed in his footsteps and died at 36 from a filming accident in which he was shot. That has been refreshed in your memory as it was mentioned in several reports of the Alex Baldwin incident. After dinner we went to the main show which was the assitant cruise director's musical journey. Rosanna Yeo has a beautiful voice and likes singing 60's, 70's and 80's. Back in the cabin we had a drink and chatted for quite awhile. A lot of laughing in 6098 that night. New day - same routiine! Delicious, relaxiing breakfast, today on the Aquavite Terrace as it is warm and sunny south of the equator. We didn't want to miss Barry Rock two days in a row so went to learn more about the flora of the islands. Some of more horticulture background experience kicked in and it was nice to be in familiar territory. We wandered around stopping to visit more and more since we now have made many new friends. The main topic was, will we be able to actually go ashore tomorrow? The lunchtime trivia wass a killer Name That Tune type game in the theater. It was there because of the better sound system. Again rosanna had 60's, 70's, 80's music but you had to know the title, artist and year of the song. I did recognize Money Can't Buy You Love and Bridge Over Troubled Waters and those artists but that was it. We weren't our usual team and the two peole who joined Carol and I were good. Jill and her husband Jim were great. She knew almost everything except for the years, but even got one of those! Carol knew artists and I mostly just looked around and listened. Interestingly Jill and Jim had grown up in Decatur, practically in my neighborhood. All of us living off of Oak Grove but on opposite sides of LaVista! They both went to Briarcliff High School which we used to drive by every morning in the way to Pi Hi! (St. Pius X Cathoic Co-Educational High School of Atlanta Georgia! No wonder we called it Pi Hi!) Carol and I opted for a room service lunch on our wrap around verandah. We did not have a lot on our agenda yesterday and enjoyed some quiet time eating and watching the sparkling wake. Since everything is included you don't pay extra for room service or any of the dining. An overabundance of delicious hot food quickly was delivered. We watched the Port Talk - first of the trip - on our big screen living room TV. Then zipped up for the regular trivia which had been moved to a 5 o'clock time slot. Sadly for me, the same music genre was the topic! I did know the Queen of Disco and that Les Mis was based on a Victor Hugo novel! We had a leisurely Asian inspired dinner with our friends in the World Cafe, talked for awhile over Yuzu cheesecake and Cranberry Gelato! We went back to our stateroom and watch Monument Men. None of us was going to the Met Live video of Turandot! Viking may have sophisticated travelers - but we are not they!