I’m home, I’m happy, and I adore my family.
Good heavens how I missed them – communication was difficult, internet was incredibly expensive – life without the daily give-and-take of my amazing 11 & 12 year olds was thin and colorless. And Gerry is the dearest, funniest guy in the world.
The ride home from the airport is becoming my favorite part of a trip away – we laugh so much in that 15 minutes – my family is so darned funny.
The cruise was wonderful – just fabulous! Even being ill for several days (and hiding away in my cabin during that time) I could appreciate how great the Holland America crew was, and how comfortable and happy they made the guests.
It was absolutely surreal, though, to have CNN constantly broadcasting “PIRATES!” while we were out on the high seas. I’m so glad the captain of the ship was freed on Sunday.
Also – no kidding- Pirates of the Caribbean I & II seemed to always be on one of the ship movie channels. Very odd…
Melissa and Shannon of Craft Cruises were so wonderful. They made sure that everyone felt welcomed and settled and well cared for during the trip. It must be hard to walk that line between letting folks be on their own, but also making them feel part of a larger group. It was achieved very gracefully on this cruise.
I felt bad that the Craft group wasn’t bigger. I can’t help but feel a bit of a failure when I’m not able to bring in a larger mass of knitting students to an event like this.
Evidently because of the holiday and Spring Break, the ship had been overbooked for a few weeks and some knitters/crocheters actually had to be turned away due to space considerations. Well, that’s a bit of a salvage to my ego. And, after all, it is all about my ego, right?
The group that we did have, though, was absolutely sensational! Each person on the cruise was kind and funny and a pure delight to be around – such a fun bunch – and I think everyone had a lovely time. I hope so. Everyone at breakfast on our last Sunday morning certainly seemed very happy and sun-tanned and relaxed (between pastry and orange juice forays)
We left on Sunday, and I felt fine at our first port on Monday, Half Moon Cay. So I went biking and enjoyed myself immensely. But returning to the ship I began sneezing and feeling so joint and muscle achey – and irritable – that I realized a cold was coming on.
I immediately squirreled myself away in my cabin, ordering room service for just about every meal and only venturing out at odd times, sticking to myself, trying to contain the infection.
The last thing I wanted was to ruin anyone else’s trip with the flu, so I didn’t go into the pool or hot tub and avoided the larger group activities like the shows and cabarets.
At Aruba I only left the ship to get Nyquil, at Curaçao I wandered off only long enough to pick up some Theraflu. I’m thinking of putting together my own tour – Chemists of the Caribbean.
It was obvious to me that I would NOT be in shape to teach on Friday so I cancelled my morning class, which allowed my (1) student to gravitate to Drew’s clutch bag class and freed up my afternoon, too. More sleep!
Drew’s classes were SO well loved on this trip – I hadn’t had a chance to see him in action as a teacher, but he’s as good as I thought he’d be!
If you get a chance, be sure to take a class with Drew Emborsky!
I wasn’t as energetic as I might have been for my last day of classes on Saturday, but we rounded out the week with more chart reading and lace fun.
All in all a good week – I hope it was as enjoyable for the students as it was for me!
I gambled for the first time – 3-card poker – and ended up down $40. I was up for a bit, and it was definitely fun! I’d hate to lose more than I did, but I certainly had a good time doing it! One of the women on our cruise won TWO slot machine jackpots and also did well at the tables, we were all very proud of her (and a bit envious, too!)
The ongoing shipboard malady that inhabited my cabin-world has returned full force this morning and I’m afraid it’s morphed into bronchitis, which I haven’t had for a few years. I’m running (not walking) to the doctor today to get this nipped in the bud, and I’ll be trying to finish up a few knitting projects that are due this week.
Here’s a wimple I’m working up in a silk/cashmere blend from Tahki, it’s a joy to work with! I almost finished it on the plane, and have a shrug in the same yarn I’m working on.
Unfortunately, I had packed a second project for IK (which is due very shortly) in my luggage, and that luggage has gone missing. Dang.
Another woman flying from Ft. Lauderdale to MN via Indianapolis on the same flights as I also lost her luggage (she had been on a Carnival cruise), so we’re pretty sure the problem wasn’t between our cruise lines and the airport. The problem seems to be in Indianapolis (where they had 1-1/2 hours to move the darned luggage…)
I’m crossing my fingers that I can get my stuff back VERY soon – I need to finish that IK cardigan!