Halong Bay

                                           
                                             The day begins with a sprinkle of these .......

Where Does the Time Go?

Has it been a week already? During the week we stopped at Shanghai and Hong Kong and had two sea days. We ate. We attended a World Cruise event at a Country Club in China, had drinks and dinner and watched Chinese dancers preform local dances, musical numbers with very loud drums. The children who performed were delightful. We also attended two local dance performer groups brought onboard the ship in both Hong Kong and China.

 

Another Sea Day, Another Brunch

If you think a Sea Day gives us a break, think again. I hate to ask for sympathy knowing snow and ice storms are blanketing the East Coast, but this blog is about my life. It's all about ME. :) I attended a computer class in the morning. It was a basic class but I picked up a few pointers. I learned how to do shortcuts so when I type @@@ it brings up my email address so I don't have to type it whenever I need it. I learned how to cut and paste on the iPad. I also learned how to download articles to read later offline. After class, I went to a lecture while our room was being cleaned..... tough life, I know. The lecture I attended was by Sir Stephen Brown on Kim Dae Jung.

 

Nagasaki

  Early arrival, we find our ship docking at the Port of Nagasaki. This is where the second atomic bomb fell. I have morning thoughts I want to share. Upon waking, I thought Why, Why God do I go on tours that have me waking up SO EARLY? I just want to lay in bed, sleep. I am so tired. After I got coffee at 7AM, I went outside to watch the Captain dock our ship.

Valentines Day

The crew went out of their way to make Valentines Day special on board. For some reason, I 'slept in' today and did not go for coffee until 9AM. What a difference 2 hours makes. Usually when I go to get my coffee, I am one of a few at the buffet. Today, the whole ship was there. Lesson learned. :) When I opened my door this morning, there was 'mail', Valentines from fellow cruisers. How nice was that?

Osaka, too cold for sandals....

Goodbye Yokohama! We departed at 10 PM two nights ago. What a pretty view!

Yokohama

 

Yokohama is the last stop in the first segment of the World Cruise. From sandals and shorts we now find snow and freezing temperatures (for us). SNOW!!!! Oi. So instead of complaining we are too hot, we now get to complain we are too cold! Because we are in Japanese territory we hear our Internet connections will be iffy if at all, and it is true. Japan has Internet regulations, Wakari Masen!* I say. It is frustrating when you are over dependent on the Internet. We spent three nights here. Too long in my opinion. Maybe it is because we find we are limited in what we can do with David's scooter. The ship is almost full again, about 200 got off, and 200 Japanese cruisers got on. This is a short segment.

On the first day David and I had a mission. I need a new camera. Mine has a huge speck trapped in the middle of the lens. We had a good basic knowledge where we "might" be able to find their one big camera store. We headed out on the free shuttle to the drop off at the train station. (((Cruisers had a choice to take a Crystal bus, round trip to Tokyo (about 90 minutes) for $178 or take the train for $3 which takes 20 minutes. We heard from fellow guests their 5 hour tour to Tokyo took 8 hours because of the congestion due to the snow.))) So off to the unknown we go with scooter, snow and a language barrier our only obstacles. Once we navigated the busy train station, we only had to go underground from the East exit to the West exit.  We had to find up elevators and down elevators.  Exiting the West side, we found ourselves at an intersection where we could see the camera store but did not know how to get to it. So close yet soooooo far.


  

Naha .....

We had some high seas adventures for the last two sea days. We traveled heavy seas, pelting sideways rain, and strong winds. The ship was in a constant crashing mode, reaching high then crashing down, rocking and rolling. Everything creaked. Shows and activities were cancelled, we were on lockdown indoors, Formal night changed to casual. We rolled with all the punches the ocean could muster. On sea days like this, I just lie on the bed, watch TV, nap, and wait it out. We survived :) .

 

Saipan

The day began with the sound of the pilot boat beneath our cabin, the motor churning loudly. Like an alarm clock for cruisers, I bounded out of bed to see where we were. It is always fun to wake up to a new port. The sky was heavy,  grey clouds all around.   I got dressed and went for coffee, the usual, please. I went to the back of the boat to check out where we we would be spending our day.  A new adventure!   The feel of the ship is different as we reach a new port. The dining room has a silent buzz of excitement and anticipation as people ready for their day.   You just feel a different energy in the air on port days.   The rain started ever so slightly and I was not going to have that today. The skies listened. When I went back to the room,  a rainbow welcomed us to Saipan, always a good sign :).

Finally Guam

 It took us 7 sea days and two rainbows to find Guam.