July 21 -- sailing to Vancouver; shipboard activities

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July 21, when we were enroute to Vancouver, was our only day on the open ocean. The ship rocked noticeably. It was a little disconcerting, watching the horizon appear and disappear in the windowframe.....

I found the motion nice, like a rocking chair. Until I developed a migraine, and then any extraneous motion was no longer nice.

Due to the migraine, my activites that day were curtailed. Naps are good......

Since my photography on the 21st was minimal, I'll show you some things that happened while we were on the ship, but which didn't fit into my narative for whichever day they happened.

During the course of the cruise, there were various things to do to earn points toward accqusition of 'dam ship logo merchandise. Scavenger hunts, trivia contests, and, apparently inspired by a chilly Glacier Bay location, amidst unfathomable amounts of ice, a polar bear swim. (It was advertised as "swim in Glacier Bay," and technically it was in Glacier Bay, sort of, as the whole ship was in Glacier Bay, but the tourists went into the pool, not the ocean. A disappointment to those who had hoped for the ocean.......)

The water in the pools is ocean water (suitably filtered), but generally is heated.

For this event, they dumped a bunch of ice in the smaller pool.

A surprising (to me) number of people immersed themselves.........






I was told it was cold by someone who spends a lot of time in pools which are far too cold for us ordinary mortals............






Several days ago I mentioned late-night culinary adventures.

At 11:00 pm each night, the cafeteria had something going on. Generally it was a national theme night. Dutch night, as an example. If you hadn't eaten *quite* enough during the day, you could venture back up and see what there was to nosh on.

One night there was a dessert extravaganza. The cooks had clearly spent days and days on all sorts of astonishingly fancy desserts.

Being a purist when it comes to dessert, I like mine to be at least 95% about taste, and not so much about fancy/complicated/embellished. I thought the desserts were fun to look at, but I didn't sample very many.

This bread lobster was one of the decorations. I took a pic of a very nice aligator, too, but he turned out even blurrier than this, alas.






The fruit skewers were intended to be put through a chocolate waterfall, but I prefer my fruit without. The mouse was chocolate, and not bad......






One of the obligatory amusing towel animals placed on our bed each evening. My bro and sil took the rabbit they got one night, and put red eyes and great nasty teeth on it for the enjoyment of my nephew (not to mention the rest of us!).

Sea turtle.






We took a kitchen tour. They whipped us right through there, but we did get to see some interesting things.






The whole-grain bread was available in bread baskets near the beginning of the cafeteria lines. It was good.






After the kitchen tour, the top chefs gave a demo/lecture. That was interesting. I thought it was a good thing that they talked about the herbs they would use in a dish, and didn't agree about which herbs would be best.....

This pic was taken from the overhead monitor, which is why it is so grainy.






For a "nominal fee" you could sign up for yoga class. I didn't take yoga, but I did work out with weights one morning. Several of our party availed themselves of the gym. (There was also a spa, and several of us enjoyed massages and other spa treatments).






On a cruise ship, you can rarely venture very far from the theme of food.






I thought this cantaloupe was cool. I like the green on the edges of the petals. The asparagas wrapped in smoked ham was very good.






Bread pudding from the cafeteria. I am not a connoisseuse of bread pudding. I was told by some who were that this was excellent. I was clear it was excellent, but could not tell that it was excellent even amoungst its fellow bread puddings.

Eggs, milk, bread -- it's food, right? The sauce was not alcoholic; I'm not sure what was in it. The combo was delicious.

I think this would be second to the berry soup, choosing my favorite dessert on board, but it was a close second.

Not very photogenic; not embellished or fancy, but ... yum.





This shot was actually taken on the 21st. That was the only day we had with steady rain all day. Weren't we lucky? We visited a place where it rains all the time, but encountered only a few drops here and there, until the day we were at sea and could sit comfortably in the Explorer Lounge with a book, enjoying the rocking chair motion of the sea.





In order to facilitate chronological traverse of these posts, a link to the next one is here.

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