Caribbean Adventure – Part 4

Saturday, December 3, 2011

This was another day at sea. The water was a little rough again and we felt a little queasy. I was taking a nap at one point when the phone rang. It was the activities director saying the placement of my letterbox had been approved. I asked him to give it to the librarian so it would be more official, but he said I should just pick it up and take it down there myself. I knew this meant that I was going to have to explain the whole thing over again from scratch. I had not said a word to the librarian before. Since I dropped Glenn’s name it was easier than I thought. While skeptical at first she progressively warmed to the idea. When she asked if I thought they would be the first cruise ship to have a letterbox, she grinned when I said yes. I knew I was in good shape. We took the box over to the reference section and she found a good place for it. The name of the book was “Sons of Fortune” by Jeffrey Archer. I know it doesn’t sound much like a reference book but it doesn’t matter. You only need the name to pick it out on the shelf. It is located in the reference section, which is the bottom two shelves under the History books.

Earlier in the week, our “activities of the day” notice said that Mah Jongg players would meet in the game room. I went there to see what it was all about. There was only one woman there but another was hovering about. Unfortunately, they played American rules, something I had abandoned in my earliest days of Mah Jongg playing. We didn’t have a foursome anyway. But I found out you could check out a set from the librarian so in the afternoon of our “at sea” day, Sue and Linda joined Karen and I for a couple of rounds. The lady from earlier in the week happened by while we were playing but thought the way we played looked pretty crazy to her and didn’t hang around long. It was fun though.

Sunday, December 4, 2011

By the time we woke up we were back at Tampa. We had been given departure tickets. The captain would call out a number, Blue 3 for instance and all those holding that ticket number could depart. Ours was one of the last called. We took the shuttle to the motel we stayed in the first night of our adventure. We arrived at 11:30 but learned our rooms would not be ready until 3:00. We had lunch, lazed by the pool, went to the bar for a drink and had pizza in our rooms. We more or less killed time till it was time to go to bed.

Monday, December 5, 2011

Our flight wasn’t real early so we didn’t have to rush around. We had bought the “A” level boarding classification again so we had no trouble getting aisle seats. They said it was going to be a full flight again. I watched the later boarding passengers looking for seats and when I spied a skinny young lady I indicated that the seats next to me were open. She thought that was great. In the end, no one sat between us so we had a comfortable flight. As we flew along she would shift this way and that bringing her knees up and fitting her entire body into the seat. It never ceases to amaze me when someone can sit in an airplane seat without having to be pounded into it with a giant mallet. I also have to get a seat belt extension every time. At first I thought these were just props for when the stewardess gives her little talk at the beginning of the flight to tell you how to adjust things properly and where the exits are. But lo and behold their real purpose is so porkers like me aren’t cut in two just sitting there buckled up.

It was a good deal colder in Milwaukee than Tampa and we were happy that Patti had brought our coats and had the car all warmed up when she picked us up. She had decorated their house for Christmas and the reality of life in the real world started to hit us. It was winter and almost Christmas and we were no longer in warm, beautiful paradise.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

We had an uneventful drive home. We were happy to be back and be able to sleep in our own bed again.